Technologist Luis Von Ahn recently asked if the AI threatened the company he directs, Duolingo.
He said many companies could be disrupted, including Netflix.
“This is one of the things that scare the world in which we live,” said Von Ahn. “With AI and major language models, we are undergoing a change in platform.”
“I’m not super worried, but you never know. And it’s not just for Duolingo, it could be all kinds of things, right?” He added. “I mean, it could be a threat to Netflix. It might just be a big tongue model – just press a button and it makes you the perfect movie.”
It was a few weeks ago, and I thought he had survived it a little. It is until I have an overview of Flow, a new film creation tool fueled by AI that Google unveiled on Tuesday.
During the Google I / O conference in Silicon Valley, the company showed this new technology, as well as some illustrative film clips created by filmmakers who had early access to the flow.
A scene from an illustrative film generated using the Google Flow Movemaking tool. Google / Flow / Henry Daubrez
Flow was built above Imagen 4 and Veo 3, the latest versions of Google’s image and video generation models. The company claims that the VEO updated model creates better visuals and can now generate sound effects, background noises and even a dialog box.
If you give her an invite describing characters and an environment and suggest a dialog box with a description of how you want her to ring, she produces a film. In an illustrative clip shared by Google, two animated animals spoke. (For me, it looked very like a Pixar film).
The flow is designed to help creators produce a high quality cinematographic video from text descriptions. Users can also put their own images and other flow files. It incorporates precise camera movements, including the possibility of requesting specific camera angles, such as a wide angle lens of 8 millimeters.
You can also change the film in the flow.
In an example shared by Google, a user asks a scene of an old man and a friendly bird that causes a black convertible from a cliff. The car begins to fall, but using the flow, the scene is quickly changed and extended using the AI so that the bird in the car begins to beat its wings and fly instead. The edition transparently keeps the continuity of the character and the scene.
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Implications for Netflix and traditional studios
An illustrative film scene created using the Google Flow tool. Google / Flow / Junie Lau
While Google’s positions flow as a tool to empower filmmakers, wider implications are clear: the content generated by AI could one day contest the productions created by humans in quality, economics and scale. For companies like Netflix, which have built empires on a narrative of high production value, AI offers both an opportunity and a threat.
On the one hand, AI tools could accelerate content development, reducing production times and budgets. On the other hand, it could open the door to a flood of content from small studios, individual creators or even consumers, eroding the competitive advantage of traditional production pipelines.
In addition, the media generated by AI could be hyperrsonized. Imagine a future where viewers select themes, genres or even actors – and the platform generates a personalized film on demand. Just like the von Ann of Duolingo described earlier this month. This could remove the power from major studios and towards platforms that control the underlying AI infrastructure, like Google.
On a recent podcast, the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, said that the Internet giant thought difficult to acquire Netflix years ago. Now maybe he doesn’t need to do this business.
The upcoming road
Google’s flow is another sign of a broader trend, namely that AI can democratize creativity. While Netflix and Legacy Studios can initially integrate these tools to improve production, the long -term landscape could resemble the transformation observed in music, publication and software coding – where AI tools and platforms radically lower the barrier to entrance for more people.
The key question is not whether AI will change the cinema – this is already the case. The question is whether established players like Netflix will overcome the wave or be exceeded by it.
While AI continues to evolve, trade models, strategies and creative visions of the biggest names in Hollywood must also. The age of the narration generated by algorithm arrives earlier than we think.
