Ben Affleck doesn’t fear AI taking over Hollywood.
“AI can write you excellent imitative verse that sounds Elizabethan. It cannot write you Shakespeare,” the actor said during a new interview at this month’s 2024 CNBC Delivering Alpha investor summit with David Faber after Faber asked whether AI is a help or a danger to Hollywood creatives.
Affleck added, “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 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,” he explained.
The actor further shared what he thinks of AI, “AI is a craftsman at best. Craftsmen can learn to make Stickley Furniture by sitting down next to somebody and seeing what their technique is and imitating. That’s how large video models, large language models, basically work. They’re just cross pollinating things that exist. Nothing new is created.”
“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,” Ben continued. “And also lack of consistency, lack of controls, lack of quality.”
In the rest of his interview, Affleck also said AI could make new episodes of shows like ‘Succession’ by using old content. You could request a custom episode, but it might feel odd. Still, AI could capture the show’s style and characters.
AI is a hot topic in Hollywood. It was a major issue during the SAG-AFTRA contract talks after a 118-day strike. Many, including John Cusack, have criticized AI, calling it greedy and like a ‘criminal enterprise.’ Nicolas Cage warned performers about contracts using digital replicas created by AI.
