Netflix’s new AI guidelines help define premium content
Illustration by Reagan Hicks / Shutterstock/ Getty / The Current
Generative AI has become a hot potato for the entertainment industry. In theory, it could make some work more efficient. But it also risks diluting human creativity.
And it’s becoming impossible to ignore.
Netflix, at least, seems to be embracing the technology — with some guardrails. It recently published guidelines for using Gen AI in content production, including potential use cases and what action should be taken.
For instance: Using the tech for only ideation? Perfectly OK! Netflix defines it as “low risk.”
But using Gen AI to create character designs or “key visuals”? That would require “escalation” since they “could impact legal rights, audience perception or union roles.”
This careful line underscores the difference between premium content and the surge in AI content on user-generated content (UGC) platforms like YouTube, as well as social media.
As Will Doherty, SVP of inventory development at The Trade Desk, put it in an op-ed for The Current recently: “User-generated slop is a low-calorie experience, and it’s being supercharged with generative AI as it unleashes undulating waves of disposable content.”
Premium content, though, is “professionally produced” and “the unregretted time in our day.”
Netflix welcomes AI, with guidelines
Netflix has been open about how AI could streamline the production process.
On the company’s latest earnings call, Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that AI “represents an incredible opportunity to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper.”
He even cited an example of how AI helped complete a visual effects sequence in the Netflix show The Eternaut, “10 times faster that it could have been completed with traditional VFX tools and work flows.”
Still, the company outlined five “guiding principles” that production partners should follow when it comes to Gen AI. The company noted that, given “sensitivities surrounding the use of these tools and the evolving legal landscape,” partners need to act responsibly.
The guidelines include, partly:
1. Don’t infringe on copyrighted works.
2. Don’t store, reuse or train generative tools on production data.
3. Use the tools in an “enterprise-secured environment.”
4. Treat generated material as temporary and not part of the final deliverables.
5. Don’t use Gen AI to replace talent or union-covered work without consent.
“What stands out is the balance,” says an exec at a TV company, regarding the guidelines. “Netflix wants to keep its edge as the industry’s disruptor, which means embracing Gen AI for speed and exploration.”
“At the same time they are drawing bright lines around talent consent, copyrighted inputs and anything that could mislead viewers.”
Notably, Hollywood actors and writers went on strike for months in 2023, with AI a central sticking point throughout negotiations. Ultimately, actors now must give consent for the creation of any digital replicas and a script is prohibited from being written or rewritten with AI.
Meanwhile, YouTube is being flooded with AI content
YouTube has tackled its AI issue quite differently.
The platform recently updated its “repetitious content” policy to cover “content that is repetitive or mass-produced,” in a seeming effort to try to quell the surge in AI-generated slop.
After feedback from creators, YouTube urged that channels that use AI to “improve” content can still monetize if they follow the platform’s policies.
But skepticism remains. Jim Louderback, editor of the newsletter Inside the Creator Economy, called the move a “baby step” and wondered what happens if mass-produced AI content “rivals today’s ‘authentic’ content.”
Sarandos, for his part, has been vocal about Netflix’s benefits for creators too. In an earnings call earlier this year, he said that some creator content could be considered “premium.”
“We believe we have the best monetization model on the planet for premium storytelling,” he said. “I think we could help those creators reach an audience. Our model can also support more ambitious efforts for them, could help derisk them, unlike the kind of typical [UGC] models.”
The Current is owned and operated by The Trade Desk, Inc.