Ben Affleck says his use of artificial intelligence in his new film Animals is about supporting filmmaking, not replacing people. The actor-director says he would never use AI trained on copyrighted work or another creator’s intelligence without permission.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the Netflix film’s premiere on Thursday, Affleck said his approach to AI was “really simple”. He said he would not use technology that had learned from copyrighted work or from the work of “a peer of mine or somebody that I look up to”.
“That was why we created a dataset that was proprietary, so that it wouldn’t have to be extractive,” Affleck said.
Affleck had first discussed AI and Animals at Bloomberg’s Screentime event on Wednesday. He said the film used AI for “lots of things”, but admitted he was hesitant to reveal exactly how because filmmakers try to preserve the illusion of reality.
“But yes, we did use it,” he said. Affleck also described the film as an example of how AI could be used ethically because “it’s a very human movie”.
Affleck said he has no interest in making films where people simply type prompts and watch images appear. He believes the technology should instead become part of the filmmaking process through companies that have relationships with the creative community.
He said guild signatories and other industry companies have a responsibility not to put people into films without their permission or payment. He also said he was uncomfortable with some technology companies’ approach to image and likeness.
Affleck believes filmmakers can produce better results when they control the technology themselves.
“And like at Netflix, it’s like, ‘Hey, do you want to use this? Do you want to try this?’ This is a discrete set of tools,” he said. “It’s not about making fake people or replacing anybody, ever.”
Instead, he described AI as another post-production tool. If audiences can clearly see or identify its use, he said, then it has failed in the same way as a poor visual effect or performance.
Affleck has worked in the AI space for several years. Earlier this year, Netflix acquired his AI filmmaking company InterPositive. Netflix later disclosed that it paid about $587 million in cash for the company.
Affleck directed, co-wrote and stars in Animals. The film follows a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped. He and his wife, played by Kerry Washington, then find themselves forced to go to extreme lengths to raise the ransom.
During his lengthy conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Affleck also addressed the wider problems facing Hollywood. He said the industry’s challenges are not fundamentally about AI. Instead, he pointed to theatrical attendance, labour stoppages and production tax rebates.
He also spoke about Artists Equity, the company he founded with Matt Damon, and its belief that “in success, everybody is compensated in a very clear way”.
Affleck said InterPositive follows the same philosophy. If a director or actor contributes their art, they should be able to choose whether to use that work to train the technology. Others, he argued, are not automatically entitled to it.
“If you choose, if you feel that it helps your film in one way or another, and there are places where it does,” he said, “you can use the technology if everyone else uses it.”
Affleck also dismissed some of the more extreme claims surrounding AI. He said the technology remains fundamentally limited and is neither magic nor sentient.
“The truth about AI that people don’t talk about is it’s like deeply and fundamentally limited in a lot of ways,” he said. “It’s not magic. It’s not super intelligence. It’s not sentient.”
Affleck added that people would eventually look back at the current fears of AI becoming like The Terminator and machines becoming geniuses.
Animals hits select theatres and begins streaming on Netflix on 9 October.
