Netflix uses AI generated visual effects for the first time

Netflix has confirmed that it used generative artificial intelligence (AI) to create visual effects in one of its original TV series for the first time.

According to co-CEO Ted Sarandos, the AI-generated effects were used to depict a collapsing building in The Eternauts, a new Argentine science fiction drama.

In a statement shared during Netflix’s latest earnings announcement, Sarandos stated that the technology enabled the visual effects team to complete the complex sequence significantly faster and more affordably than traditional methods would allow.

"The cost of it would just wouldn't have been feasible for a show in that budget.” Sarandos noted.

"That sequence actually is the very first [generative] AI final footage to appear on screen in a Netflix original series or film. So the creators were thrilled with the result."

The company also revealed a 16% jump in quarterly revenue to $11 billion, driven in part by strong viewership of the third and final season of Squid Game, which has now amassed over 122 million views.

Netflix’s net profit climbed from $2.1 billion to $3.1 billion over the same period.

Davier Yoon, co-founder of Singapore-based animation studio CraveFX, said Netflix’s move was expected and part of a broader trend.

"It feels like a matter of time. AI definitely opens the gate to allow smaller studios to achieve big budget-looking visuals," Yoon said.

"Ultimately, it is the artist who decides what is in the final image, not AI."

Concerns over AI’s role in Hollywood were at the forefront of the 2023 actors’ strike, when members of SAG-AFTRA pushed for safeguards against its misuse.

In 2024, over 13,000 creatives worldwide, including actors Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon, signed a statement warning AI companies that the unlicensed use of their work to train generative AI models is a “major, unjust threat” to their livelihoods.