Some days it feels like Netflix is doing everything it can to ensure users aren’t happy with the service, from its new poorly-received UI to its push into ads. And thanks to the company’s recently published Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Interview, we now know the company is already using generative AI to help create its content, citing cut costs as a positive, with plans to increase its use in future content.
Certainly, GenAI is a boon for small productions with limited financial resources, but one has to wonder what the long-term effects will be when creativity is increasingly taken out of human hands.
Netflix appears to be all in on GenAI
Expect more Netflix content to use AI in the future
Now that Netflix has released its Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Interview, everyone is busy dissecting what was discussed. The biggest takeaway is that the Co-CEO Ted Sarandos is happy with the results of GenAI used in the science fiction TV series The Eternaut, thanks to the time and money saved, but the other Co-CEO (why do I feel like I’m watching an episode of The Office?) Greg Peters is also keen to use GenAI “in more and more spots,” leaving little to the imagination just what Netflix thinks of the use of AI when creating content. More is assuredly coming, with today’s news feeling a lot like marketing for The Eternaut, now that it’s on everyone’s minds.
Ultimately, content created with the help of AI doesn’t sound all that appealing, but then again, I find the majority of Netflix’s content often borders on boring at best, and it’s doubtful AI is going to improve the writing and acting across its shows and movies. Perhaps there’s a place for AI in some specific effects when working with a very low budget, but it’s not like Netflix is hard up for money, begging the question why penny pinching is necessary in the first place, while entire livelihoods are tossed to the wayside. Chasing the bottom line sure doesn’t sound like a surefire way to create intriguing content, but the exact opposite.
While Netflix’s first foray into GenAI isn’t over the top by any means, having only created a building collapse for its The Eternaut show, this is clearly just the start of AI use in Netflix content. The question remains: Is anyone actually looking forward to more and more content created with generative AI besides creators looking to save a buck?
