Ben Affleck says he had a ‘heart attack’ when he first saw what AI could do — then he used it in his movie

Ben Affleck expressed his initial fear of artificial intelligence (AI) when he first encountered its capabilities, describing it as having a "heart attack." The actor then founded a company that invested eight months in creating AI tools specifically tailored for the film industry. Affleck revealed that he utilized AI for his upcoming film, "Animals," though he did not disclose the extent of its use.

Speaking at the Bloomberg Screentime event in Los Angeles, Affleck emphasized that his company's AI tools aim to assist creators in streamlining their work rather than rendering them obsolete. His interest in AI originated from his involvement in a visual-effects company, allowing him to observe early developments from companies like Google and OpenAI.

Affleck's goal was to use AI in an ethical manner, enabling filmmakers and artists to enhance their creative processes without displacing others. To address concerns about AI training on copyrighted material, Affleck's company developed its own dataset by shooting extensive footage to train AI models for specific filmmaking tasks.

The AI would initially learn basic concepts like colors from a vast array of footage, but for finer details of filmmaking, it would require more professionally shot material. Affleck clarified that his company uses open models trained on publicly available footage and further refines them for cinematic purposes, ensuring that the proprietary nature of the original footage is preserved.

He stressed that AI's purpose is not to replace human filmmakers but to provide them with ethical tools to benefit from this technology. Netflix recently acquired Affleck's company, InterPositive, for $587 million. Affleck also mentioned using AI extensively for "Animals," primarily during post-production, although he refrained from elaborating on its specific applications.

The actor highlighted the ongoing debate in Hollywood regarding AI's role in filmmaking, noting that while some, such as James Cameron and Martin Scorsese, support its use as a creative tool, others like Guillermo del Toro and Christopher Nolan express concerns about its potential impact on jobs and artistic control.