{"id":543462,"date":"2026-07-25T12:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/543462\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T12:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:52:17","slug":"hate-generative-ai-maybe-its-time-to-boycott-netflix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/543462\/","title":{"rendered":"Hate generative AI? Maybe it’s time to boycott Netflix"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve spent the last couple of years grumbling about AI slop, but you’re still paying for Netflix every month, here’s an awkward question: why?<\/p>\n

Netflix has used generative AI in roughly 300 titles so far this year, from early concept work to post-production. And that’s not a rumour. It’s in the company’s own shareholder letter, and co-CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed it on this quarter’s earnings call<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Most stunning of all, The American Experiment<\/a> \u2013 a docuseries about the American Revolution \u2013 featured 17 minutes of AI-altered footage. Netflix says those sequences were produced twice as fast and at half the cost, and that AI let it include shots it otherwise couldn’t have afforded.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromCreative Bloq<\/p>\n

The platform has been careful to frame this as a tool for artists, not a replacement for them. People are still writing, acting and shooting these shows, they insist; AI is just helping them do it more cheaply. But this was an earnings call, not a panel about creative possibility. And the word that came up again and again wasn’t “vision”; it was cost.<\/p>\n

What to watch instead<\/p>\n

Here’s the thing though; you don’t actually need Netflix any more. Apple<\/a> TV has recently become one of the strongest libraries in streaming. It’s now home to Severance<\/a>, Slow Horses and Bad Sisters: shows that consistently top critics’ lists without a hint of the algorithmic sameness Netflix seems to wallow in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Elsewhere Paramount+ has leaned hard into its Star Trek universe, with Starfleet Academy landing this year alongside its existing run of spin-offs, plus a deep back catalogue for anyone who wants comfort telly rather than prestige drama.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And Disney<\/a>+ has had a strong run lately too, with the apocalyptic thriller Paradise<\/a> racking up Emmy nominations and now heading into a third season, alongside The Testaments; the tense Handmaid’s Tale follow-up that became one of the most talked-about dramas of the year.<\/p>\n

Sign up to Creative Bloq’s daily newsletter, which brings you the latest news and inspiration from the worlds of art, design and technology.<\/p>\n

Grading on a curve<\/p>\n

None of these platforms are spotless on AI of course; the technology is spreading fast, and it would be naive to assume any major studio is entirely hands-off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But at least none have gone on the record with a number anywhere close to Netflix’s 300. Nor have their leadership boasted to investors about AI-assisted shortcuts being the engine of future growth quite so nakedly. So there’s that.<\/p>\n

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\"A\n<\/p>\n

Paradise on Disney+ is the best show I’ve watched this year (Image credit: Disney+)<\/p>\n

And it’s not like AI’s the only sign Netflix couldn’t care less about audiences right now. Consider, for example, all the cancellations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Boroughs, the Duffer Brothers’ star-studded sci-fi drama starring Alfred Molina and Geena Davis, was axed after a single season, despite a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score and chart-topping viewing figures, a decision even Netflix’s own head of scripted series struggled to fully explain.<\/p>\n

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\"A\n<\/p>\n

Severance on Apple TV has become water-cooler conversation in a way that no Netflix show has managed in a while (Image credit: Apple TV)<\/p>\n

Alice in Borderland and Terminator Zero were among other shows cancelled in the same period. On top of that, Netflix recently used an AI-generated voice of the late Gene Wilder in a reality show, a decision that raised eyebrows even among people who are usually relaxed about this stuff.<\/p>\n

Put all of that together, and the case for cancelling Netflix itself becomes clear. You don’t have to swear off streaming altogether; you just have to watch it somewhere else. And with so much critically acclaimed, award-winning content on other platforms, Netflix feels like a habit that’s increasingly easy to break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you’ve spent the last couple of years grumbling about AI slop, but you’re still paying for Netflix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-543462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}