Ted Sarandos, a co-chief executive of Netflix, said the Argentinian science fiction series El Eternauta (The Eternaut) was the first it had made that involved using generative AI footage.

He said the series, which follows survivors of a rapid and devastating toxic snowfall, involved Netflix and visual effects (VFX) artists using AI to show a building collapsing in Buenos Aires.

“Using AI-powered tools, they were able to achieve an amazing result with remarkable speed and, in fact, that VFX sequence was completed 10 times faster than it could have been completed with traditional VFX tools and workflows,” he said.

He said the use of AI tools allowed Netflix to fund the show at a much lower cost than is typical for a big-budget production.

“The cost of [the special effects without AI] just wouldn’t have been feasible for a show in that budget,” Sarandos said.