Ted Sarandos on AI – Creative Storytelling Rules, It’s Good Business “Making Content 10% Better” Not “50% Cheaper”

With the creative community trembling at the march of AI, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos tried to soothe the waters, saying excellent storytelling is the basis of the entertainment business although artificial intelligence can be great tool for creators.  

The impact is hard to predict, obviously, he said on a call after the giant streamer’s quarterly earnings. “I think that AI is going to generate a great set of creative tools, a great way for creators to tell better stories” But series and movies win by connecting with the audience. “It’s in the beauty of the writing, it’s in the chemistry of the actors. It’s in the plot, the surprise twist … I’m not saying that audiences don’t notice all these other [AI] things. But I think they largely care about connecting with the storytelling. And I’d say they probably don’t care much about budgets, and arguably maybe not even about the technology to deliver it.”

He used animation as an example.

“If you look back over a hundred years of entertainment, you can see how great technology and great entertainment work hand in hand,” he said. “Animation didn’t get cheaper, it got better in the move from hand-drawn to CGI animation. And more people work in animation today than ever in history.

“So, I’m pretty sure that there’s a better business and a bigger business in making content 10% better than it is making it 50% cheaper.”

“There are a lot of filmmakers, a lot of producers, experimenting with AI today. They’re super excited about how useful a tool it can be. And we’ve got to see how that develops before we can make any meaningful predictions of what it means for anybody.”