Netflix stirs fears by using AI-assisted background art in short anime film

Enlarge / A still image from the short film Dog and Boy,, which uses image synthesis to help generate background artwork. (credit: Netflix)

Over the past year, generative AI has kicked off a wave of existential dread over potential machine-fueled job loss not seen since the advent of the industrial revolution. On Tuesday, Netflix reinvigorated that fear when it debuted a short film called Dog and Boy that utilizes AI image synthesis to help generate its background artwork.

Directed by Ryotaro Makihara, the three-minute animated short follows the story of a boy and his robotic dog through cheerful times, although the story soon takes a dramatic turn toward the post-apocalyptic. Along the way, it includes lush backgrounds apparently created as a collaboration between man and machine, credited to "AI (+Human)" in the end credit sequence.

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  A still image from the short film Dog and Boy that features AI-assisted background art. [credit: Netflix ]

In the announcement tweet, Netflix cited an industry labor shortage as the reason for using the image synthesis technology:

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