Netflix's Ted Sarandos says AI will make it cheaper to tell epic stories — and won't kill creativity
AI may be a game changer for Hollywood budgets, but it won't replace human creativity, says Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos.
In a conversation on the WTF podcast with entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, Sarandos said he wasn't afraid of AI.
"I hope creators aren't either because it's going to make a great tool to tell stories even better, and make it possible to make movies they couldn't before," he said.
Sarandos highlighted AI's potential to reduce the cost of visual effects. He said Martin Scorsese's Netflix film "The Irishman" used de-aging technology that was thought to have added about $30 million to the budget: "Today, we can do that exact film better for a fraction."
That kind of cost reduction, Sarandos explained, could allow a wider range of creators to tell more ambitious stories without requiring blockbuster-size budgets.
"Those tools will become very much like visual effect tools, very much like computer animation," he said. "You're using the tools to tell the story and express yourself in a way that you couldn't before."
Sarandos didn't believe that AI would replace the emotional core of storytelling.
"What AI is doing today is like the antithesis of imagination," he said. "It's giving you the most predictable outcome based on these kinds of rough ideas you're giving it."
Sarandos admitted that some creators could simply accept AI-generated content without "taking the step of saying, 'Not like this,' and just go with what was spit out — that would be the danger."
He was confident that the tech can "lower the cost of doing things in a way that makes it possible to tell bigger and better stories — but still requires people to do that."
Director James Cameron echoed similar concerns in an April appearance on Meta's "Boz to the Future" podcast, suggesting AI could as much as halve the cost of effects-heavy blockbusters, but not replace human creators.
Meanwhile, several tech giants now offer AI video tools.
In December, OpenAI released Sora, an AI video generator that can create short videos from written instructions and edit existing videos by filling frames.
Last month, Google unveiled Flow, which uses its latest AI models to generate visuals, sound effects, and dialogue.
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