r/movies 15h ago

News About 300 Netflix Programs Used Generative AI This Year, Company Reveals

https://variety.com/2026/biz/news/about-300-netflix-programs-used-ai-this-year-q2-earnings-1236812914/
4.8k Upvotes

484 comments sorted by

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u/wittor 15h ago

People were saying the documentaries were using ai instead of stock footage.

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u/hungrylens 14h ago

They have some mind bendingly bad AI narration.

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u/OhTheseSourTimes 12h ago

Confirmed? Or is this one of those "I didn't like it so it must've been AI" bs?

And I'm saying this because one of my friends did a doc (not for Netflix), got a professional voice actor, and he got pissed off because a bunch of people are calling it AI on social media/YouTube trailers. And I hear shit like that all day from other friends in different creative fields.

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u/nocolon 11h ago

Nah, there's a disclaimer that pops up (at least in the one I watched) that says AI was used to replace the actor and the voice. I don't remember the correct verbiage but it at least tells you it's AI.

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u/indoxiecated 10h ago

Just curious, which documentary?

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u/thestralcore 10h ago

I believe The Murder of Rachel Nickell used AI face/voice replacements in the interviews

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u/indoxiecated 10h ago

Gotcha thank you.

u/_528_491_ 2h ago

and the Lucy Letby doc

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u/bootsmalone 9h ago

They did it in that not-very-good boy band documentary, Dirty Pop. They took the words from Louis Perlman’s book and used AI to make it look like he was saying it all to the camera. It was terrible and really undercut a lot of what they were trying to say.

u/Historical-Mix8865 5h ago

Not netflix, but literally most on UK's mainstream Ch5. They had one about the royals in the 1800s which had all re-enactments AI generated with a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen. 

u/JaxxisR 27m ago

I can forgive that if the person being interviewed wants anonymity. We've been doing that for documentaries on sensitive topics for decades through voice modulation and lighting tricks.

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u/princesskittyglitter 9h ago

What Jennifer Did used AI generated images in it in 2024, there was a huge controversy over it

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u/martinpagh 11h ago

We have that issue right now with a campaign we did for one of the Smithsonian museums. Professional voice actors, but people on social media constantly call the work out as AI.

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u/iheartlungs 7h ago

I have a tinfoil hat theory those people are bots and their purpose is to muddy the waters so it becomes difficult to tell what’s real and what’s fake. Like literally anything gets called ai. I’ve seen so many creatives who need to make a ‘this is not ai’ post because they’ve been called out constantly, but their stuff is just so obviously not ai.

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u/Remarkable_Gain6430 7h ago

And the more that we point out that it’s not AI the more irate and insistent they are that it IS AI. It’s particularly frustrating when so much hard work and long hours have been devoted to a project that is born from real enthusiasm and love for the subject matter. Of course we’re also used to being told that:

‘It’s all Photoshopped” (as if that’s easy)
‘It’s all just CGI” (as if that’s easy)
And for those with long memories, “it’s all airbrushed”
And longer memories “it’s all smoke and mirrors”

Onwards and upwards!

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u/iheartlungs 7h ago

I’ve seen literal oil painters need to say this is not ai, look here is me literally mixing and applying paints to a canvas. It must be exhausting.

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u/Remarkable_Gain6430 6h ago

I’ve worked in computer graphics for decades and it is exhausting, irritating and frustrating having hard work dismissed so readily but… I also understand that ultimately the viewer/end user/client/customer etc sees the end result and doesn’t give a shit about what went into getting it onto the screen. I missed a couple of classics BTW:
“The computer does it all for you”
And the classic “so you guys just play video games all day, right?”

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u/OhTheseSourTimes 11h ago

I hate it, it's become my pet peeve. I know a few designers and animators that have told me they post something they're pretty proud about on social media only for a bunch of morons to comment about how it's all AI. Frustrating.

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u/Fritos-queen33 10h ago

I was watching a docuseries about catastrophic mechanical failures in the US and most of the footage is AI. Theres a little blip that shows up saying it is.

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u/CardAble6193 11h ago

again AI deiscrediting EVERYTHING is a day1 intended feature

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u/comrade333 13h ago

They've also used AI for anonomizing people, like the Lucy Letby documentary

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u/MandudesRevenge 12h ago

That shit sucks so bad.

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u/LiamNeesonsIsMyShiit 6h ago

For real, it just looks so uncanny. I couldn't even watch it. Why didn't they just do the silhouette thing like usual?

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u/uncleben85 12h ago

That one doesn't seem that bad.

Sure, they could just blur, shadow, pixelate, etc. but it at least serves a purpose

They used AI to hide the faces of the minors in the False Prophet documentary, too

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u/MandudesRevenge 11h ago

Yeah, it’s shit. Just don’t show the people at all.

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u/SackclothSandy 11h ago

Or turn 'em into orcs. Keep it interesting.

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u/JangB 10h ago

Can I be Gandalf?

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u/Rebelgecko 12h ago

Their recent America 250 documentary has some weird AI cutscenes 

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u/dantebichettte 8h ago

What was Weird Al doing in the America 250 documentary? /s

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u/SidFarkus47 12h ago

I watched some of “bad neighbor” or worst neighbor ever or whatever and the crime animations seemed very AI

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u/Majestic-Two3474 11h ago

I’m glad it wasn’t just me! It was so jarring

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u/metatarsalbun 8h ago

I kind of wonder why they used ai for those scenes? They weren’t a thing like the speaker and seemed really out of place with the overall flow. Reminded me a lot of 2000 mtv documentaries

u/A313-Isoke 5h ago

Oh no, I thought they were just bad reenactments.

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u/frozenblueberrytreat 9h ago

I've been seeing shows on actual TV networks using shit AI narration and animation, and it pisses me the fuck off that these networks will go so far out of their way to not pay people, as to use garage trash AI that isn't even edited properly, and my folks love it. On top of that, the AI is randomly hallucinating and they aren't cutting those parts out. Hell, the editing might be being done by AI too for all I know.

u/Motorheadass 3h ago edited 3h ago

I watched a documentary on the history channel the other day.  in a rare moment I was somewhere with cable, and it was shocking how cheaply it was made. I guess it was like halfway a dramatized recreation too, which was weird. Like it was about donuts, and they had some shitty plywood prop of the donut machine that they used a  second clip of maybe 15-20 times. While mentioning how those exact donut machines are still in use today. 

Go fucking find one then. 

They had another one about dangerous toys which I also watched and most of the "experts" were just making shit up. One kept saying that a cloud chamber for detecting radiation was identical to the cloud produced by a nuclear bomb. 

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u/ryapeter 6h ago

Netflix and documentary should not be in same paragraph.

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u/AgentChris 15h ago

Netflix stuff always had this weird look to it and now it’s going to get worse

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u/NickWillisPornStash 15h ago

You mean every scene has blurred background

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u/Steve2911 15h ago

That's part of it but the colour grading and shot composition always screams "this isn't real" even if it is.

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u/deptofknowimsayings 15h ago

A result of forcing every creator to use the same camera, lenses, and lighting setup. Not to mention forcing expository dialogue in every scene so the people on their phones can stay clued in.

The odd Netflix film that actually looks good these days, like Train Dreams, is something they acquired not something they funded and produced

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u/Asclepius-Rod 13h ago

Train Dreams is so gorgeous, that makes sense

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u/justthekoufax 12h ago

Favorite movie from last year. It’s beautiful.

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u/abarrelofmankeys 14h ago

Yeah basically everything made by Netflix looks…like crap. Like it wasn’t poor quality- It’s just the same, and not interesting.

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u/VerilyShelly 13h ago

They once showed me two ads for two completely different shows but used the exact same music, including all the stingers and breaks for one liners to be inserted, beat for beat. And they both had the sharp, glossy highly-lit look.

I haven't been subscribed to Netflix in 2 or 3 years and I will never come back.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_MONTRALS 12h ago

Which two shows?

u/VerilyShelly 5h ago

Found them: The Residence and The Lady's Companion, official trailers for both

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u/VerilyShelly 12h ago

I don't remember exactly... I want to say a period piece set in British occupied India (from what the flashes in my head are showing me... I might have the country totally wrong), and a comical murder mystery starring the actor who played Crazy Eyes on Orange Is The New Black.

Edit: no, sorry, totally wrong about the first one. That was something else. This ad was for a show set in a romance language country (Italy, Spain, South America somewhere?), a kind of a family dynasty thing

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u/StrigiStockBacking 13h ago

It's dynamic exposure algorithms. In the days of film, you set exposure for the whole frame. With software, you can adjust the exposure by pixel, so everything looks fake as shit.

Cell phone cameras do it too, unless you shut it off.

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u/vulpes21 14h ago

Is that actually documented? Do they encourage that sort of writing for the zero-attention span viewers?

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u/deptofknowimsayings 14h ago

It’s been reported on by a few and if I recall Matt Damon talked about it while promoting his film “The Rip”. Netflix won’t outright state this, and none of their reps will either. But it has been discussed enough that there is merit to this.

It’s called “Second Screen Viewing”.

The article “Is your favourite show being simplified so you can keep scrolling?” From the BBC’s BiteSize format has the quote from Matt Damon.

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u/SenatorCoffee 13h ago

Thanks!

Here is the quote:

While promoting Netflix film The Rip, actor and producer Matt Damon claimed Netflix tells writers: “…it wouldn’t be bad if you re-iterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue, because people are on their phones while they’re watching.”

and link:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zxdxdnb

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u/HenryDorsettCase47 13h ago

He also mentioned they wanted the plot structured differently than how you would typically script an action film with the set pieces becoming bigger and more elaborate as you progress through the acts. Netflix wanted them to have a huge action set piece in the first 5 minutes.

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u/deptofknowimsayings 13h ago

I didn’t know if this sub would punish me for posting a link so I just shared the title. Thanks for bringing up the quote!

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u/vulpes21 13h ago

That's awful but thanks for sharing.

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u/propsie 13h ago

Anecdotally. This is from Jutine Bateman in 2023

I’ve heard from showrunners who are given notes from the streamers that “This isn’t second screen enough.” Meaning, the viewer’s primary screen is their phone and the laptop and they don’t want anything on your show to distract them from their primary screen because if they get distracted, they might look up, be confused, and go turn it off. I heard somebody use this term before: they want a “visual muzak.” When showrunners are getting notes like that, are they able to do their best work? No.

u/A313-Isoke 5h ago

What about Frankenstein? That didn't have the Netflix look to it but that's also Guillermo del Toro.

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u/MovieTrawler 13h ago

Most things on the platform are acquired and not produced directly by them. And even with those films they're just distributing, there is standards and requirements they must meet from a technical pov (with few notable exceptions).

But it's not all the same camera, lenses and lighting set up. There is a list of approved cameras and codecs but literally all of them are practically industry standard anyway. Lighting and lenses having nothing to do with it.

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u/lessthanadam 15h ago

Watching the Stranger Things 5 documentary and my mind was blown seeing some of those outdoor locations weren't just sets.

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u/Steve2911 14h ago

Yep. And seeing people put so much time and effort into building complex and beautiful sets that just looked like mush in the end product.

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u/new_math 11h ago

The new avatar stuff (even though it's decent) annoyed me a little because everything was so pristine. I guess it could have been an artistic choice but, it definitely could have used a tiny amount of grit, dirt, and wear. Every character looked like they just got out the shower and walked off a fashion runway with a brand new outfit. Maybe I'm just weird but it was kind of distracting and immersion breaking.

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u/Allansfirebird 15h ago

If the cinematographers could be bothered to use more than a 25W bulb to light a scene, the cameras could actually get some decent depth of field.

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u/hardy_83 15h ago

I'm sure many want to but are yelled down. Y execs about how the show needs to be easily readable on a phone screen or something.

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u/ennuiinmotion 14h ago

Drives me nuts. Everything has Vaseline rubbed around the edges.

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u/lew_rong 13h ago

Fun fact, George Lucas used a smear of Vaseline on the camera lens to blur the mirror rigged to obscure the wheels underneath Luke's speeder in A New Hope.

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u/CardAble6193 10h ago

can u blame them , they just learn from big hits on cinema!!

blurred shots mean you as a DIR think the blurred contain non info

actually you should fucking rethink what you put on my paid screen instead of blurring it!!

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u/riegspsych325 ⊃∪⊃⪽ 15h ago

so much of their “content” looks like what would happen if David Yates got his hands on the Volume tech whilst having a bad cold

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u/Asclepius-Rod 13h ago

Which sucks because one of their OG shows House of Cards I remember looking really good

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u/The_Fullmetal_Titan 13h ago

Netflix Daredevil is still one of the best things ever shot imo, certainly on TV.

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u/The_Fullmetal_Titan 15h ago

That’s an insult to David Yates. Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows Part 1 are two of the best shot films in the series.

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u/Manzilla48 15h ago

Half blood prince? The one with that weird washed out filter?

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u/The_Fullmetal_Titan 14h ago

Rewatch it. The blocking is amazing and it does make sense for that one to be super dark and muddy.

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u/Steve2911 15h ago

I don't know what to tell you. Half Blood Prince looks awful. Like, a TV movie at best. Deathly Hallows was a huge improvement though.

That's irrelevant though because PoA is the only one that really pops.

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u/Joh951518 15h ago

That’s not fair on first 2 imo. They’re very Columbus, but they have a distinct visual identity.

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u/Steve2911 14h ago

Yeah, I agree with that!

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u/The_Fullmetal_Titan 14h ago

On that I absolutely agree.

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u/_Meece_ 13h ago

Half Blood and POA are the two standout movies for Cinematography in that series.

The rest are okay, I really like Chamber but it's nothing special.

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u/DiabolicalDoug 10h ago

David Yates was the worst thing to happen to Harry Potter since JK Rowling

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u/Lester_Diamond4 14h ago

Streamberry

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u/InnocentTailor 13h ago

It reinforces my dislike for Netflix - a buffet of mediocrity.

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u/tking191919 13h ago

I call it the “how do we make this cheap bullshit pop as much as possible while abusing the hell out of our internal algorithms to create addictively reinforced engagement where no such engagement should otherwise be” sheen. Haven’t worked out a simpler title yet.

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u/shutyourbutt69 15h ago

We all saw the open ChatGPT tabs on the computers in the Stranger Things doc

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u/nightswimsofficial 11h ago

I didnt, because I didnt bother watching it after the garbage last season. But that doesnt surprise me.

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u/LovelyOrangeJuice 7h ago

yeah, people who watched that doc are a different breed. after the disappointing mess that was the last season, they'd have to pay me to watch how that shit was made

u/AP_in_Indy 5h ago

I am curious how they could have had AI available year-round to help spot canonical inconsistencies and still pump out that BS.

u/respondin2u 59m ago

AI has poor long term memory and will often just make stuff up over time.

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u/TryContent4093 4h ago

It wasn’t on the show. It was in the behind the scenes documentary or something

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u/mikeyfreshh r/Movies Veteran 15h ago

Netflix told shareholders in a letter that the technology’s usage expands across every level of a program’s production process, from its concept and pre-visualization to post-production and release

Oh we're completely cooked

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u/Chubuwee 15h ago

Ever since all the backlash we just knew the companies would be more secretive with their usage of AI until if spread to the point you don’t feel you have a choice but to accept it

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u/Open-Impact-1607 14h ago

Reject modernity, return to monke 

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u/lew_rong 13h ago

Light meters out for Harambe

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u/ozymandingus578 14h ago

I fucking hate it and will continue hating AI. I won’t accept it no matter what. I’m gonna watch dramatic plays exclusively (Twelve angry men, Glengarry Glen Ross) since they are harder to fake.

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u/Chubuwee 12h ago

Shakespeare at the park!

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u/Vlisa 14h ago

Not to be morbid, but the reality is one day we’ll dead and the next generation will not know any difference and it’ll be normal to them. Just like every generation before us.

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u/Mr_Industrial 14h ago

I cant control the future, I cant change the past, but I can choose what I consume today here and now. In that vein, I will choose to support the artists of today.

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u/Fastnacht 13h ago

Also we can't "control the future" but we can certainly make an effort to influence younger generations against this sort of thing.

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u/BabypintoJuniorLube 12h ago

Gen Z hates this shit. Its the Boomers like Scorsese and Lucas who are distracted by the shiny thing.

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u/desacralize 11h ago

This is the attitude to have. "But everyone else will be doing it!" so fucking what. You're only responsible for yourself.

u/ProfessionalNight959 4h ago

The attitude may be wrong but the guy was right about the fact that to the new Gen, AI will be the norm.

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u/mrjackspade 13h ago

one day

I'm almost 40 now and after watching this shit happen over and over, I fully expect it to be largely forgotten within the next decade. Not some far off year when we're all dead, but when Gen Alpha hits their early to mid 20's and becomes the primary voice behind online discourse.

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u/ShallowBasketcase 13h ago

Like how everyone uses crypto now for all their legitimate purchases and everyone uses their nft wallets instead of resumes or portfolios when applying for jobs or loans. These things are just inevitable, you see!

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u/Notwerk 11h ago

Bro, i'm sitting over here with my goggles experiencing this conversation through the Metaverse. Isn't everyone? 

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u/DinosBiggestFan 6h ago

You don't really have to accept it. You can just not subscribe to Netflix. That is an option. Standing on principle is not always a bad thing, people did that for ages past and will continue to do so. Even if you're the only one who chose to stand against it, at least you will know that you stood against it. And you're certainly not alone, I've cut my Netflix subscription because they priced me out of the money I was willing to pay for that entertainment since they keep raising the prices, but cancelling everything I start to have interest in.

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u/RipMySoul 14h ago

Exactly, it will end up how it ended up with cars in the USA. Everything will cater to AI/cars because it benefits corporations. Then it will get to the point where all of us are forced to use AI/cars because everything is catered to it. Even if we avoid it the majority of people won't. It will become the status quo and any request to change it will be deemed "too expensive/laborious" as it will require major changes to the infrastructure.

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u/_Patronizes_Idiots_ 13h ago

I think it's always been a waiting game for them, they just have to be patient until the not-too-distant future when people just don't care anymore. We're not even that far out from it, look at slop like the "fruit love island" shit that's all over TikTok.

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u/TisBeTheFuk 12h ago edited 12h ago

Why isn't there a law yet, that AI usage must be disclosed?

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u/Chinchillin09 11h ago

The lawmakers barely know what the internet is, or that it exists.

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u/Soske 12h ago

Because lawmakers are investing in AI stocks.

u/Hubbardia 2h ago

Define AI usage?

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u/SufficientGreek 10h ago

Think about this for even a second. How would this law be justified? In any way?

There are no physical or mental health effects from watching media that was created with AI. Children aren't being harmed. Certainly not in the way Netflix uses it.

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u/ModsR-Retards 9h ago

They should also include computer use of any sort. It's insane that we put up with CGI in movies. They need to hire a thousand set designers and do it by hand.

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u/o5mfiHTNsH748KVq 10h ago

Because 99% of the use of ai is none of your business. All that matters is you’re not intentionally deceived by being specifically told something is real when it’s actually AI.

The rest is art direction and back office work that doesn’t concern you, the viewer.

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u/Ayn_Diarrhea_Rand 11h ago

Vote with your wallets

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u/Notwerk 11h ago

You could just cancel it. Netflix content has been dog shit for months, maybe years. Probably a direct result of slop, to be honest. 

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u/silverbolt2000 15h ago

Like CGI, you only notice the bad generative AI.

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u/AdHocHillbilly 15h ago

So? CGI is still a craft. How noticeable the handiwork of something is shouldn't have a bearing on the legitimacy of it as a form of creative expression.

It's creatively bankrupt. Pay attention to the people and institutions investing the most time and money into AI. Its people who either care the least about the creative process in service of earnings, people who want a shortcut into "artistry" without technique or hard work, or people who are just doomscrolling. If we are okay with those people making entertainment for us and future generations, then I guess we deserve the slop they feed us.

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u/FalmerEldritch 14h ago

As far as I've seen people who do CGI/SFX are pretty invested in genAI, as it lets them either do stuff they previously couldn't, do stuff they could with better results, or do really laborious work quicker and easier. Like who do you think is implementing this stuff, the C-suite at Netflix? It's the CGI artists who are using it in their work.

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u/Mrfurball_II 13h ago

Yeah this isn’t true. I work a lot of my colleagues are actively pushing against it. It’s only management that wants to use it. We have been using machine learning tools for years but those are not generative and are used for building mattes or sequence painting looks etc.

Gen ai isn’t even good enough for cinema, it dirties the image adds fringing/chromatic aberration incorrectly and over sharpens stuff adding this digital texture that looks disgusting and you have to physically fix. It’s only suitable for phone delivery really any bigger screen and you see all the shit flaws. But the execs have never cared about quality. Just the creatives

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u/stormin217 13h ago

lololol, no. visual media production was something i worked in (animation in a past life), still have many friends in and am have many clients currently in said field. they're pretty hard against it, overall. the only people supporting the use of generative ai imaging in media production are mediocre people who value quantity with unrealistic deadlines over quality.

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u/HarrumphingDuck 14h ago

As far as I've seen people who do CGI/SFX

Who?

it lets them either do stuff they previously couldn't

Like what?

do stuff they could with better results

Pffft, now it's abundantly clear you're talking out of your ass.

or do really laborious work quicker and easier.

That one I'll give you. No one is clamoring to do rotoscope work when AI could do it faster, but that's also the type of work that gets someone in the door, which is a path now closed.

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u/popularcolor 13h ago

Rotoscoping is not a foot-in-the-door VFX job at all. At nearly every level, from small shop to big, that work has been outsourced to places like India where the work is done for pennies compared to what it would cost elsewhere. It's been that way for a while.

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u/Tohu_va_bohu 14h ago

I'm in the industry. What he says is true. The fact that you're so triggered by this is what tells me you're not in the industry

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u/JustaLyinTometa 13h ago

Dude asked for examples and you just shut it down with “trust me bro”

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u/ThunderheadStudio 14h ago

"I suck and everyone I work with sucks" is not a good argument for accepting things that suck.

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u/happyflappypancakes 13h ago

I think it takes a bit more of a nuanced thought than whatever led you to infer that.

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u/Somnambulist815 15h ago

Give us full disclosure on all of them. Put it on the splash page.

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u/CapillaryClinton 14h ago

The should have to have a logo showing AI generated content 

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u/StrigiStockBacking 13h ago

The streaming service Frndly.tv was using AI actors in their ads, and they (kindly?) put a notice across the bottom of the screen (something like "performed by AI, not actual actors" or whatever).

I appreciated it, because it signals to me that I will never sign up for their service, ever.

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u/SufficientGreek 10h ago

So that signals to them that they should just hide it, instead of disclosing it.

u/CapillaryClinton 4h ago

It would need regulation to force them to disclose it IMO

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u/Darkmetroidz 14h ago

No because if they tell us what is slop then we can avoid the slop. Because nothing says a product is good like having to obfuscate where it was used.

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u/CapillaryClinton 14h ago

Not sure I understood this comment

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u/BactaBobomb 14h ago

They're saying that if Netflix puts a disclaimer or icon that says "AI-generated" or references that AI was used in the program in question, it will make people more likely to avoid watching it. So it's better to hide that detail for more likely success and more people watching it. Sheep in wolf's clothing for anti-AI people, and perhaps they would be none-the-wiser.

u/CapillaryClinton 4h ago

Ah thanks. Uh yes... thats why I'm asking for it haha.

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u/Givingtree310 10h ago

Who do you trust to mandate and monitor this? The Trump administration?

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u/Raghavendra98 7h ago

Unfortunately the tech is moving faster than our laws

In a sane world, we would already have these laws enforced

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u/Cheese0089 15h ago

No one noticed because their quality was already at rock bottom.

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u/dl064 15h ago

However, he said, AI could only make things “faster and cheaper” if a high bar of quality followed. “I don’t think faster and cheaper matters if it’s not better,” he told the outlet

Yeah I don't believe that at all.

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u/Steve2911 15h ago

Coincidentally I just realised I barely watched any of the slop Netflix put out in the last year so I guess I can safely drop that sub.

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u/BostonBaggins 15h ago

Yup I usually watch Netflix for the non netflix

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u/3entendre 11h ago

Same. 

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u/Bukki13 8h ago

Same here. I don't even use streaming services that much (It's mostly my mum ans sister watching them). I think I watched a total of 3 movies on Netflix in the past year? Most of my streaming use is Disney+, mostly for rewatching various Pixar movies

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u/BostonBaggins 8h ago

Disney is great.

I use that for boy meets world. Greatest show ever.

u/TryContent4093 4h ago

Unfortunately, netflix is the best when it comes to varieties which is why i prefer them. I can watch regular western shows, anime, kdramas and cdramas all in one. Other streaming apps like disney or hbo are only exclusive to their own. I wish there’s an all in one app where i can watch everything without paying tons of money for each type of show i want to watch

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u/TheRealProtozoid 14h ago

I had Netflix from 2000 to 2024. After about the tenth time I had a forced ad for the Joe Rogan special, I finally just snapped. Which pains me, because I was an early advocate for their mail service and their streaming service, and from around 2018-2019 they made the best movies in the business. Now they just make me angry. They are unscrupulous bootlickers and they make slop.

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u/RaymondLeggs 7h ago

Joe rogan is a dullard

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u/Yoroyo 15h ago

I dropped it last year and haven’t felt like I missed out on anything. Save yourself the cash.

u/Logan42 5h ago

Friendly reminder to anyone reading that you can safely cancel any subscription. None of them are necessary.

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u/Leafsnail 14h ago

Yeah good reminder for me to cancel my sub. Not because of any moral reason but just because Netflix almost never makes anything worth watching these days

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u/AdHocHillbilly 15h ago

Just came to the same realization and cancelled. The price is ridiculous, too. Even if something is streaming on netflix, it will work out to be less for me to pay for a rental at the rate I actually would stream on their catalogue.

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u/Kriss-Kringle 15h ago

A company known for producing mostly quantity over quality reveals that they're using AI slop in their productions is so in line with their business model.

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u/ShallowBasketcase 13h ago

Except they're not producing quantity either. Netflix are the kings of cancelling shows before the first season even finishes and taking years-long breaks between releases for their most popular IPs.

I can see how someone who thinks that business model is a good idea would also think AI is cool.

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u/Kriss-Kringle 13h ago

They are producing quantity and saying otherwise is silly.

Just because they cancel a lot of shows doesn't mean they don't have a lot of output overall.

It's been their model ever since Disney announced they were pulling their library from Netflix to make their own streaming platform.

They took out a big loan and started producing shows and movies from all across the world.

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u/Givingtree310 10h ago

They’re not producing quantity? The article says they used AI in 300 products. If they are not producing quantity, what production company on earth is?

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u/Lauren_Conrad_ 15h ago

It’s all squeezed out of the same tube.

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u/iamwounded69 15h ago

I canceled my Netflix subscription recently and I cannot emphasize enough how little I miss it.

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u/DemonicPanda11 13h ago

Same here, I replaced it with AMC A-List and even though that requires me getting out of the house it’s actually provided way more value for me than Netflix has.

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u/NoLocal1776 15h ago

They should start losing even more subs.

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u/particledamage 15h ago

They won’t. People accept price hikes every 4.5 months, they’ll accept anything. I left years ago though

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u/Grevin56 15h ago

I dropped them over the price hikes. I had to scroll through pages of low effort junk to get to anything watchable. Then I got an email about the price going up decided enough was enough. Maybe if they cut some shitty filler content from their bloated library to keep the price the same then I'd still be subscribed.

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u/drale2 15h ago

Last price hike had me finally cancel.

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u/No_Issue2334 13h ago

Netflix is at all time highs in subscription count lol

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u/AxelV2 14h ago

Can’t wait for them to buy Letterboxd and ruin that too :)

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u/Three_Froggy_Problem 15h ago

When you consider how much absolute hogslop Netflix is releasing every year, this isn’t really surprising. For every Netflix show you know, there are about 30 more that you’ve never heard of but that somehow amass millions of views.

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u/Devilnaht 15h ago

Slop here! Hot fresh slop here! Just turn off your brain, fall into a dissociative haze, and let your head sink further and further into the slop trough. Become comfortably numb and let it drown out the world in white noise

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u/Tiny_Butterscotch_76 13h ago

I think AI might be even more involved with the movie-making industry then we think. Sonic 3 had an AI concept art.

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u/LetrasetBoy 14h ago

*cancel*

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u/lansely 11h ago

I see, the loyalists lost the war because they had men shooting two rifles at the same time... and that the rifles were blowing sparks in the men's faces.

Its really sad that they couldn't pay a couple thousand dollars to the folk that do reenactments, and chose to bank in future environmental harm instead. I guess our future generations can deal with it.

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u/ChocolateBroccoli13 15h ago

Makes sense, the people that consume Netflix slop aren't going to care about AI slop

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u/probably-not-Ben 15h ago

I'd wager most people don't care as much as people think - as long as the price point is good and its entertaining enough

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u/LightThatIgnitesAll 15h ago

Netflix content always looked AI.

All those people who defend this billion dollar company never made sense to me.

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u/Blaircat1994 14h ago

I mostly watch Netflix for the fun cake baking challenge shows like Is It Cake and Nailed It

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u/StrigiStockBacking 13h ago

Yeah they also air Great British Baking Show, which I love, but I think I saw that on the Roku Channel as well

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u/parksits 14h ago

Glad I unsubscribed. Haven't missed it at all

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u/Vi1eOne 14h ago

You'll never convince me the entire final season of Stranger Things wasn't written by AI

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u/No_Copy_5955 14h ago

And nobody has watched any of them, and no one will. Hence my fucking portfolio today, thanks NTFLX

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u/GrilledSandwiches 13h ago

"We cut jobs and corners to make more money and gave none of it back to our viewers, instead continuing to increase their costs."

high fives all the other executives in the room

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u/WoodooHide69 13h ago

Glad I cancelled Netflix when they started airing Trump fascist propaganda.

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u/MachineCloudCreative 13h ago

It tracks because their shows are lifeless as hell.

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u/DragoonDM 12h ago

I feel like there's considerably less of an ethical problem with pirating content that was produced using a significant amount of generative AI.

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u/MrPanda663 12h ago

What the actual fuck.

Screw writers strike, protest against the entire movie industry.

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u/ThePartyHat 15h ago

If this shit keeps up, I think I’ll finally catch up on my backlog. 😮‍💨

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u/Acrobatic-Tomato-128 14h ago

FUCK NETFLIX

AI SUCKS

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u/FlamingoVisible1947 13h ago

I work in tech in the industry and this section comment is very ignorant. The fact that productions use GenAI doesn't mean that they use it to generate images or videos that end up in the final product.

Most of it will be used for pre-production, for stuff like the storyboarding, etc.

I do think it's still negative overall because it means that less people are required for the same output, and therefore some people lose their jobs, but it also means that smaller productions can do bigger projects, or that overall the end result can be better because more options can be explored.

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u/IAmNotABabyElephant 13h ago edited 13h ago

Look at the image in the article. The one "courtesy of Netflix". Part of the post.

You see what I see? The guy with the two rifles? What is that, three hands?

... and its American Revolution-focused docuseries “The American Experiment” for their uses of the technology, which Netflix said helped create “highly complex sequences” that included enhanced crowd sizes and battle sequences.

According to the article, they are definitely using it for images and videos that end up in the final product. If that image provided "courtesy of Netflix" is the final product, that shows exactly why Generative AI simply should not be used in this manner.

It isn't CGI or something, it's not creating an artificial image of varying quality (as in, not the Scorpion King from The Mummy Returns) that have largely been resolved these days, but are still sometimes a problem in cheaper productions that might have weird looking backgrounds or low-detail models, but rather it is getting fundamental details wrong in a way that I'd argue is actually worse than a low-detail model or greenscreen.

That, and it's the deceptive element that people dislike. The Mummy Returns had a janky looking Scorpion King, sure, but you knew humans made it, and they didn't try to deceive you about it. This is work of poor quality that makes no mention of being created with a technology that has very real ethical, environmental, and resource concerns and is a source of great controversy.

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u/chrispy_t 13h ago

This isn’t a topic people think rationally about or even read the article.

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u/IAmNotABabyElephant 13h ago

Thing is, as detailed in my response to the above comment, the article does say that generative AI is being used to create images and video that make it into the final product.

So the people getting mad about it being used in the final product, at least according to this article, are correct. The above commenter, who has claimed otherwise, is coming from a position that is contrary to the article.

A rational thinker would look at the image provided by the article, see the obvious and glaring flaw that is suggested to be Netflix's final product, and quite rightfully be upset about this.

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u/matteblackpeace 14h ago

Best way I could describe Netflix originals it’s like looking at an explosion without hearing the boom, doesn’t make me feel anything.

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u/FrothyEspresso 14h ago

And yet, their stock price is now down 8% after hours.

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u/RGQcats 14h ago

AI and chill.

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u/Ani_Mentor 14h ago

Of course they did. A brand like Netflix will be Slopping as fast as they possibly can.

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u/Jane_Lame 14h ago

No wonder so many of them are bad/worse.

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u/BrendTheCow 14h ago

Jokes on them. I get Netflix for free and haven’t seen anything worth watching in 2025/2026.

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u/plaguedbullets 14h ago

I can't tell if it's AI or shitty rendered game play footage but WWE has it in their opening sequence (particularly the Roman Reigns part). They've definitely used it for video packages/promos.

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u/jojowasher 14h ago

surprised it isnt more, dont they have AI dubbing these days? including the mouth movement?

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u/bostonbedlam 14h ago

Looks like they realized that if they just shut up about it, the average person doesn’t know to be upset

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u/AmberDuke05 13h ago

You call by how shit the quality has been. And they are wondering why people are watching less from them.