While the entertainment industry is experiencing a historic strike with creative talent on picket lines, streaming giant Netflix is focusing on the development of its machine learning infrastructure. Netflix is actively searching for AI specialists and offering salaries as high as $900, 000, contrasting with the industry's current discussions to limit the use of AI. One job posting for the position of product manager on Netflix's machine learning platform offers a compensation range of $300, 000 to $900, 000, emphasizing the opportunity to create unprecedented product experiences. Additionally, Netflix is recruiting a senior software engineer with an annual income between $100, 000 and $700, 000 to work on building, managing, and scaling real-life machine learning applications. They are also seeking a machine learning scientist with a total pay range of $150, 000 to $750, 000 to develop algorithms for high-quality localization. Netflix's reliance on machine learning is evident in its constant investment in the technology to enhance the member experience and optimize its services, including the recommendation algorithm, catalog shaping, and the production of original content. Furthermore, the company is hiring a technical director of AI/machine learning for its gaming studio to push the boundaries of AI/ML technologies in game development.

This position offers a salary range of $450, 000 to $650, 000 per year. The ongoing negotiations between studios and creators and performers highlight the concern around the use of generative AI, the technology behind popular apps like ChatGPT and MidJourney. The Arts, Media, and Television Producers Alliance declined to comment on Netflix's job postings but directed inquiries to a statement regarding the negotiations. Writers and actors fear that AI will result in reduced pay and loss of ownership over their work, while studios argue that their proposals regarding the use of replicas are limited to the motion pictures in which the background actors are employed. The Writers Guild of America opposes these proposals, expressing concerns about being underpaid to revise content created by AI. The use of AI in media is already prevalent, with various outlets employing AI to write articles, sometimes with errors. Disney, as reported by The Intercept, is also advertising generative AI jobs, and video game studios are utilizing AI to create game characters.