Netflix uses generative AI in one of its shows for first time

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jul/18/netflix-uses-generative-ai-in-show-for-first-time-el-eternauta

by jmsflknr • 1 year ago

24 23 1 year ago

DarkNova62• 1 year ago

Maybe the most interesting paragraph: “The cost of [the special effects without AI] just wouldn’t have been feasible for a show in that budget,” Sarandos said.

But given the abysmal quality of CGI/FX these days (look at the new Mortal Kombat trailer ffs), I can’t imagine film deteriorating any further. But industry must seriously step up its game because soon, everyone can make movies like that.

What counts is not the monopoly on talent and technology, but distribution and how much artistic merit you can leverage.

Hollywood is rightfully afraid.

pointlessone• 1 year ago

MK CGI might as well be on purpose. Paying homage to the cheesefest of the old movies. The CGI in the Uncaged Fury trailer is definitley on purpose an intentionally worse than bad.

DarkNova62• 1 year ago

No homage can be great enough if the original from the 90s looks better than their contemporary counterpart.

The new movie looks like a collection of scenes containing 2-3 people on a bluescreen, with pre-rendered backgrounds that look worse than the last 2 video game entries (which were genuine pieces of art).

I wanna love it, but I'm currently watching 90s anime and I am impressed by their composition and how they can linger on a single scene to create mood. All while having a dense plot.

DoctorOW• 1 year ago

This isn't unique to AI. Visual effects have been achievable on my desktop computer for as long as I can remember (I'm in my mid twenties). Industry standard compositing tools such as Nuke, Autodesk, Fusion, have had free educational/non-commercial versions forever, and you can replace almost all of those with Blender. Watch Tears of Steel, a short film done almost entirely in FOSS.

Technology aside, I believe that the monopoly on talent, as in the hiring of talent is symptomatic of a monopoly on distribution, which means the devaluing of talent over reach is actually worse for the independent filmmaker.

alephnerd2• 1 year ago

VFX studios don't have a sufficient monopoly of talent - it's overwhelmingly piecework outsourced to multiple studios, and most jurisdictions give MASSIVE tax subsidises for VFX production (40-70% of total production cost).

The issue for a lot of productions is the budget per episode is low. For example, the show mentioned in the article has a budget of $15M to produce 6 episodes that heavily rely on shooting on location, significant set design, VFX, somewhat high profile actors, and a significant reduction in tax incentives by the Millei government at a moment when countries like Vietnam, India, Philippines, Colombia, and China are creating a second VFX production subsidy war.

Choosing to use GenAI to automate the creation of secondary scenes can become fairly cheap and is the lowest hanging fruit.

voidUpdate4• 1 year ago

Is netflix having financial troubles that mean it can't hire actual people or something?

peter-m80• 1 year ago

bro discovered capitalism

voidUpdate4• 1 year ago

Sis already knew capitalism existed, she is also angry at companies for taking jobs away from people

birn559• 1 year ago

I don't think that's appropriate language for HN. We should strive for high quality content but the very least civilized discussions, ideally without sarcasm or one liners that spirals into low quality posts.

ChrisRR• 1 year ago

Is Netflix having financial troubles that mean it uses CGI instead of building sets and performing physical stunts and effects?

voidUpdate4• 1 year ago

I don't know how much CGIing an environment vs actually building it costs, I guess it would depend on the environment, but you're still employing people rather than just hitting the "make me a video" button over and over again

alephnerd2• 1 year ago

Not really, but film and TV production is a business like any other.

You aren't just given some money and told to do whatever - there is a significant amount of capital raised and GTM plans created.

It actually isn't much different from VC - I've found the mechanisms around film/TV production financing to be fairly similar.

seanicus• 1 year ago

Netflix is building a large part of their production style around people keeping netflix running in the background 24/7. Writers are told to have the characters frequently "exposition dump" because the viewers aren't actually watching. Generative AI makes total sense if you have a product that no one is actually watching; just using employing it the same way I employ a white noise machine to help my toddler sleep.

defrost• 1 year ago

In other current "AI" assisted effects in TV series - virtual dubbing:

Watch the Skies review – see the lips move in alien abduction sci-fi with pioneering AI

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jul/08/watch-the-skies...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44498995

  This nicely put together Swedish UFO throwback is notable for its early use of ‘vubbing’ – using tech to match lip movements to new English dialogue.

elpocko• 1 year ago

Use of AI in video production might become the standard in a short time. Quality, coherence, and consistency of video generation has substantially improved over the last year. I'm looking forward to it, especially in ambitious amateur productions.

kldg2• 1 year ago

It makes sense for short shots, I guess; think a kind of "slideshow of videos"; maybe scene-setting landscape pans, but then you need your production to conform to whatever the AI generates, because it won't conform to what you had in mind. I haven't seen a good example yet of passable scene-to-scene character coherency, so don't imagine we'll be seeing a whole-AI show for a fairly long while. That plastic man short that went viral ~2-3 months ago was not near required "conformity" (that is, the character changed too much between scenes; had too many errors). Would be pleased to see examples of it if it exists, though.

xela79• 1 year ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx8rMzlG29Q

kldg2• 1 year ago

Okay, that's pretty impressive work; I watched it while eating lunch. Thanks!

mingus88• 1 year ago

Headline isn’t true. Netflix was caught adding AI generated images in a true crime doc

https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/netflix-crime-doc-...

Jennifer Pans case is from 2010 so there’s no explaining away how photos of her from that time ended up with characteristic AI fingers

morgango• 1 year ago

The problem is that media and video games are worth less. Not "worthless", of course, but just valued less than they used to be.

Essentially, prices for video games and media are stagnant (or even go down) compared to inflation, and the prices for people go up every year. Changes (something like moving to lower cost countries or utilizing AI) is inevitable in a capitalist system.

Netflix uses generative AI in one of its shows for first time

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