In a change that displays AI’s rising affect — and probably disruptive energy — in Hollywood, Netflix added generative AI to the checklist of potential threat components on its annual report filed with the SEC.

In Netflix’s 10-Okay report filed Friday, it added this new part to the lengthy part of threat components (that are required underneath SEC guidelines) within the part about video competitors: “[N]ew technological developments, together with the event and use of generative synthetic intelligence, are quickly evolving. If our opponents achieve a bonus by utilizing such applied sciences, our capacity to compete successfully and our outcomes of operations could possibly be adversely impacted.”

Netflix additionally added this wording: “As well as, the use or adoption of latest and rising applied sciences could enhance our publicity to mental property claims, and the provision of copyright and different mental property safety for AI-generated materials is unsure.”

Except for these two sections, the chance components on Netflix’s 10-Okay for 2023 — totaling some 10,000 phrases — remained largely the identical.

To make sure, the adjustments listed below are very small, within the grand scheme of issues. And needless to say these are all of the potential threat components that corporations like Netflix should talk to traders.

However the usage of AI by studios flared right into a hot-button concern for the 2 Hollywood unions that went on strike in 2023, WGA and SAG-AFTRA, involved in regards to the expertise hurting their livelihoods. The WGA’s deal contains guardrails round the usage of generative AI within the inventive course of, together with a provision that provides the union itself the facility to problem the usage of writers’ current work to coach AI software program packages. The SAG-AFTRA settlement with the studios contains some, however not all, of the union’s calls for on AI; for instance, the deal permits AI fashions to “prepare” on actors’ performances to create artificial characters and actors will be capable of forestall that provided that the ultimate output contains the actors’ recognizable facial options.

Throughout the writers strike, Netflix generated ire on the picket traces over its job itemizing for a product supervisor within the firm’s machine-learning group with a wage vary of between $300,000 and $900,000. Placing union members railed about Netflix’s posting — although the job in query centered on AI developments for content material personalization and optimizing payment-processing methods, not generative-AI tasks per se.