Ben Affleck isn’t worried about artificial intelligence taking over Hollywood.
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During an appearance at the 2024 CNBC Delivering Alpha investor summit,Squawk on the Street co-anchor David Faber asked Affleck if AI is a “threat” to filmmakers.
“Is it a benefit or a real threat? Is it possible that Netflix could say, ‘We’re going to do our own James Bond thing with a bunch of actors that are recreated for this market or that market?’” Faber questioned the two-time Oscar winner.
Affleck declared that it’s “not possible now” and it is “highly unlikely” that it would happen in the future.
“Movies will be one of the last things, if everything gets replaced, to be replaced by AI,” Affleck predicted.
“AI can write you excellent imitative verse that sounds Elizabethan. It cannot write you Shakespeare.
“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. What AI is going to do is disintermediate, 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 wanting to make Good Will Huntings to go out and make it.”
Affleck called the emerging technology “craftsman at best.
“Craftsmen can learn to make Stickley Furniture by sitting down next to somebody and seeing what their technique is and imitating it. That’s how large video models, large language models basically work … But they’re just cross-pollinating things that exist. Nothing new is created,” he said. “Craftsman is knowing how to work. Art is knowing when to stop. And I think knowing when to stop is going to be a very difficult thing for AI to learn because it’s taste. And also lack of consistency, lack of controls, lack of quality.”
Affleck said that people working in the visual effects business will likely be impacted. “They’re in trouble because what once cost a lot of money is going to cost a lot less. It’s going to hammer that space,” he continued.
But Affleck is convinced that AI won’t replace filmmakers. “It can fix mistakes that you’ve made … You might be able to get two seasons of House of the Dragon in a year instead of one. If that happens … they should just make more shows. You can have the same spend and you can watch more episodes,” he said.
He also acknowledged a future where people at home could rewrite their favourite shows in a way they prefer.
“AI will allow you to ask for your own episode of Succession where you could say, ‘I’ll pay you $30 and can you make me a 45-minute episode where, like, Kendall gets the company and runs off and has an affair with Stewy,’ and it’ll do it,” Affleck said. “And it will be a little janky and a little bit weird, but it will know the sass and those actors and it will remix it in effect. That’s the value long term of AI for consumers.”
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Affleck went on to liken AI to the DVD business, which reshaped Hollywood more than 25 years ago and became a big income generator for movie studios.
“That’s the value, in my view, long term of AI for consumers, which is eventually my hope for AI is that it’s an additional revenue stream that can replace DVD, which took 15-20% out of the economy of filmmaking,” he said.
But Affleck also said that telling compelling stories will be the key for filmmakers, actors and writers.
“It’s a little harder to do this job now. You actually have to complete a little bit more, the consumer has more options. They don’t just have three networks, they don’t just have a few studios,” he said. “YouTube is kicking people’s ass. You can watch a lot of things … so you have to work harder and you have to be better,” he said.
AI has been a lighting rod in the entertainment industry. Worries from background actors prompted last year’s strike that brought movie and television shoots to a halt.
Earlier this month, actor Robert Downey Jr. said he would “sue all future executives” if anyone tried to recreate his performances after his death.
“My law firm will still be very active,” he said during an appearance on the On With Kara Swisher podcast.
Nicolas Cage also said he was “terrified” of AI being used to distort his own performances.
“Film performance, to me, is very much a handmade, organic, from-scratch process,” Cage said last month during a reception honouring a group of up-and-coming actors, according to Deadline. “It’s from the heart, it’s from the imagination, it’s from thoughts and detail and thinking and honing and preparing.”