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?
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.
Most stunning of all, The American Experiment – a docuseries about the American Revolution – 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.
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.
What to watch instead
Here's the thing though; you don't actually need Netflix any more. Apple TV has recently become one of the strongest libraries in streaming. It's now home to Severance, Slow Horses and Bad Sisters: shows that consistently top critics' lists without a hint of the algorithmic sameness Netflix seems to wallow in.
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.
And Disney+ has had a strong run lately too, with the apocalyptic thriller Paradise 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.
Grading on a curve
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
