2/19/2023: netflix’s NEW AI creates the show as you watch

Sojourn, Netflix’s new AI generated story, launches

Today Netflix officially launched its first AI-generated story, called “Sojourn”. Set in a fantasy landscape, Sojourn lets you decide what happens to its protagonist, Eija Mori, a refugee fleeing a war-torn kingdom.

When you, the viewer, makes a decision for what Eija should do next, all of the video, dialog, and characters are generated in real-time using AI. According to Netflix, the outcome is ‘infinite story possibilities’. Netflix believes this new genre, which they’ve titled ‘Realtime stories’, will grow to 50% of streaming hours within the next decade.

While all of the content is AI generated, the core of Sojourn reflects the work of what Netflix calls its ‘Story Directors’, human storytellers who train the AI model and create the content, structure, and tone in which Sojourn takes place. It remains to be seen how, or if, this ambitious project will impact Netflix’s stagnant user growth and stock price.