Netflix just handed more ammunition to anyone concerned that the AI revolution is mostly an excuse for companies to replace human workers with faster machines.
The latest executive to offer up a substance-free word salad about the amazing-ness of AI is Mike Verdu, Netflix’s vice president of GenAI for Games. Via a post on his LinkedIn, Verdu rambles about how he’s “working on driving a ‘once in a generation’ inflection point for game development and player experiences using generative AI” and that the streaming giant will use Generative AI to “accelerate the velocity of (game) development and unlock truly novel game experiences that will surprise, delight, and inspire players.”
Which sounds like he’s basically saying Netflix will use Generative AI to make games at a faster pace as well as make them better. A pronouncement that comes — as a total coincidence, I’m sure — just days after Netflix shuttered its AAA games studio, the staff of which included gaming industry veterans who’d worked on titles like Halo and God of War. The offering from this particular studio was expected to have been along the lines of the big-budget sort, similar to titles like Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty; in other words, very different from the casual games that have comprised the lion’s share of Netflix’s offering thus far.
“I am focused on a creator-first vision for AI, one that puts creative talent at the center, with AI being a catalyst and an accelerant,” Verdu’s LinkedIn post continues — which, again, is rich coming just days after his company shuttered a studio and parted ways with actual creative talent.
Given that AI is such a disruptive technology, I guess I just wish executives were more candid and forthright about the future, instead of offering dumb platitudes like Netflix’s Verdu or essentially punting when asked to defend their AI company’s shady practices (looking at you, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas). And then there’s a CEO like OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who recently compared embracing AI to being on God’s side, which is enough to make me hate this version of the future all by itself.
Netflix’s idea about the utility of AI strikes me as uncomfortably similar to that of Google, which has allowed so many of its core products to decay while it goes all-in on AI. Shame on Netflix for the way it’s treated its employees — and, by extension, us.
