At a time when Hollywood has been debating over the use of AI in the film industry, Oscar-winning actor and director Ben Affleck has sold his artificial intelligence-powered startup InterPositive to Netflix. The streaming giant confirmed the acquisition in a statement, saying the deal reflects its commitment to “investing in creator-led innovation that keeps filmmakers at the center of the process.” Affleck will now join the company as a senior advisor following the sale.
About Ben Affleck’s AI startup
According to a report posted on the OTT giant’s official page, InterPositive, which comprises of a team of 16 engineers, researchers and creatives, will use its technology to support post-production work across the platform’s various projects. Affleck, in a chat with the company’s heads, shared how the AI tech will develop tools to assist filmmakers and insisted that it will not replace creative talent.He said, “We also need to preserve what makes storytelling human, which is judgment. The kind that takes decades to build, experience to hone and that only people can have. I knew I had a responsibility to my peers and our industry, to protect the power of human creativity and the people behind it. In creating InterPositive, I sought to do just that.”
AI in filmmaking
Explaining the motivation behind founding the company, Affleck said “I wanted to build a workflow that captures what happens on a set, with vocabulary that matched the language cinematographers and directors already spoke and included the kind of consistency and controls they would expect.”
AI tools to aid filmmaking NOT performances
He went on to share that research and development led them to create the first model, focused on training AI models around filmmaking techniques rather than performances, ensuring that artists maintain control over how the tools are used.Reiterating that the tools function with ‘restrain’, he elaborated, “the tools are designed for responsible exploration while keeping creative decisions in the hands of artists – and ensuring that the benefits of this technology flow directly back to the story they’re trying to tell.”“You have to create your movie essentially first before you can really build your model around your movie using AI. And once you do that, you have your model, you control it,” he said during a conversation with the executives.
Ben Affleck on using AI to lower production costs
The development comes shortly after Affleck dubbed AI as a “craftsman at best.” During his interview at 2024 CNBC Delivering Alpha investor summit, the ‘Batman’ star declared, “Movies will be one of the last things, if everything gets replaced, to be replaced by AI.”While insisting “Nothing new is created” with AI, he explained, “What AI is going to do is dis-intermediate the more laborious, less creative, and more costly aspects of filmmaking that will allow costs to be brought down, that will lower the barrier to entry, that will allow more voices to be heard, that will make it easier for the people want to make ‘Good Will Huntings’ to go out and make it.”
