Ben Affleck defends AI in Hollywood, says it will help filmmakers, not replace them
by The Washington Times AI News Desk · The Washington TimesActor and director Ben Affleck, whose artificial intelligence startup was acquired by Netflix this year, said this week that fears of AI overrunning Hollywood are overblown, and he confirmed that he used the technology on his upcoming film.
Speaking Wednesday at Bloomberg’s Screentime summit in Los Angeles, the Academy Award winner told Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw that some of the dire predictions surrounding AI amount to propaganda, Fox News reported. Mr. Affleck said filmmakers tend to warm to the tools once they understand them and feel in control, and that the technology is a continuation of the industry’s long history of technical advances.
“I don’t worry about Skynet,” Mr. Affleck said, referring to the fictional AI system in the “Terminator” films. He said he expects AI to add to the film business rather than take it over.
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His concerns lie elsewhere, he said, citing students, dependence on the technology and responsible use. He pointed to a roughly 30% rise in the number of A’s awarded at colleges over the past three years. The Fox report did not say where that figure comes from.
Netflix announced in March that it had acquired InterPositive, the AI filmmaking-tools company Mr. Affleck founded in 2022, and he joined the streamer as a senior adviser. Terms were not disclosed then. A securities filing in July put the price of a March acquisition at about $587 million in cash. The filing did not name InterPositive, though reporting identified the March deal as the Affleck company.
Asked about critics who say Netflix bought the company to pursue objectionable uses of AI while a respected filmmaker provides cover, Mr. Affleck called that a cynical view. He said Netflix needs to stay in business with artists and has been careful in its approach. He also said AI is being used on productions that employ the same number of people or more, and that Netflix has kept its word about improving its work rather than cutting costs. He offered no figures to support either claim.
Netflix executives have made a similar case. They said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call that generative AI workflows had been used in roughly 300 titles this year, mostly in post-production. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the technology was being applied to costly sequences such as crowd scenes and historic battles, and that the savings would likely be reinvested in more content.
Mr. Affleck said he used AI for many tasks on “Animals,” the Netflix thriller he directed and stars in with Kerry Washington. He declined to give specifics, likening it to a magician who won’t spoil the trick.
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