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By Billie Schwab Dunn
Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter
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Ben Affleck has shared his support for AI and its incorporation into filmmaking, saying that the technology will empower creators instead of negatively impacting them.
The Hollywood actor addressed growing fears about technology replacing actors and writers during an appearance at CNBC's Delivering Alpha 2024 investor summit. Affleck—who cofounded the production company Artists Equity alongside Matt Damon—said he saw no immediate threat from AI in the world of creativity unless you worked in visual effects.
The Good Will Hunting star said AI would not be able to replace "human beings making films" and when asked at the summit whether AI was a benefit or "a real threat," Affleck responded: "Movies will be one of the last things, if everything gets replaced, to be replaced by AI."
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Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Affleck for comment on Monday outside of normal business hours.
A video of Affleck's appearance at the event was shared to X (formerly Twitter) by @bilawalsidhu, and it had been viewed more than 122,000 times at the time of writing.
"AI can write you excellent imitative verse that sounds Elizabethan, it cannot write you Shakespeare," Affleck said in the clip. "The function of having two actors or three or four actors in a room and the taste to discern and construct, that is something that currently entirely alludes AI's capability and I think will for a meaningful period of time."
He continued: "What AI is going to do is going to disintermediate the laborious, less creative and more costly aspects of filmmaking that will allow costs to be brought down, that will lower the barrier for entry, that will allow more voices to be heard, that will make it easier for the people that want to make Good Will Huntings to go out and make it."
He then went on to say that, at best, AI was a craftsman that imitated people's techniques.
The actor continued: "That's how large video models and large language models basically work. Library of vectors of meaning and transformers that interpret it in context, right? But they're just cross-pollinating things that exist. Nothing new is created.
"AI for this world of generative video, is going to do key things more, meaning—I wouldn't like to be in the visual effects business, they're in trouble. Because what costs a lot of money is now going to cost a lot less. And it's going to hammer that space and already is and maybe it shouldn't take a thousand people to render something but it's not going to replace human beings making films."
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Affleck said AI would help filmmakers do things such as make their backgrounds more convincing and change the colors of things without having to reshoot and fix any mistakes.
He went on to explain how it could help rewrite TV shows for fans, giving an example of a hypothetical ending for Succession.
"It can make it, you know, you might be able to get two seasons of House of the Dragon in a year instead of one," he said, before adding: "Eventually, AI will allow you to ask for your own episode of Succession. You could say, 'I'll pay $30, and could you make me a 40-minute episode where, like, Kendall gets the company and runs off and has an affair with Stewy.' And it'll do it."
When sharing the video, X user @bilawalsidhu, whose profile lists him as a scout at technology investor a16z and a former Google project manager, heaped praise on Affleck's comments, writing that it was "finally a grounded take on AI & filmmaking from a Hollywood A-lister."
Affleck's comments resulted in a conversation taking place in the comments, with many people sharing their thoughts on what he said, although not everyone agreed.
"One big question is whether indies will embrace it, or try to regulate it out of existence. If it's the latter, it'll end up primarily in the hands of large companies and studios. If the former, it'll enable small productions to take on more than they ever could before," one person wrote.
"Nah. He's exactly as shallow as I thought he would be. Someone like him should really have copium dialed up!" said another.
A different X user agreed with what Affleck said before adding: "But the main thing for the industry and ultimately the culture is fresh stories told in new ways. We have boxed ourselves into a film making corner where we have incredible VFX and incredible AI visualization, but the stories that are being produced are s*** and uninspired."
A fourth commented: "One thing he got wrong is his take on newness. Anything you think of as new was probably someone mashing up 2 or more ideas from their past. People generally just don't come up with something new out of thin air. AI will excel in the "new" concepts as well as other aspects."
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