Is There Good And Bad AI? Hollywood’s AI Conundrum Arises Again As Netflix Buys Ben Affleck’s AI Startup for $600 Million
It looks like Hollywood’s AI conundrum arises once again after Netflix buys Ben Affleck’s AI startup.
What is InterPositive AI, and why is Netflix paying so much money for one of Hollywood’s least-known AI startups? Now, this seems to be the combination of ready cash and a beauty in the eyes of the beholder situation. After emerging on the losing end of their takeover war with Paramount Skydance for Warner Bros., Netflix won its own little victory in the form of a $2.8 billion breakup fee, and Ben Affleck’s stealth invention is the beneficiary of that sum.
Just days after being forced out of the merger deal, Netflix has paid a reported $600 million to buy the little-known AI company. The Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice star quietly started the AI company in 2022 with a focus on post-production editing. The deal, which is the second largest in Netflix’s history, sees Affleck join the streamer as an adviser while InterPositive AI staff are integrated into Netflix.
According to Bloomberg, the initial amount paid by Netflix might be lower, with the rest of the payments being attached to certain performance targets. Even so, the purchase, which came out of the blue, has sparked lots of concern over where Hollywood really stands with AI. Just a few weeks ago, a group of more than 800 actors, writers, and other creatives across the USA joined the “stealing isn’t innovation” campaign against AI companies, which has received immense support from some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Scarlett Johansson and Cate Blanchett.
Now, there are three main types of AI, namely Generative AI, Predictive AI, and Agnetic/Autonomus Decision Making AI. Affleck’s startup falls into the latter two categories, and this point becomes very important when analyzing his and the general opinion of many in Hollywood on AI. While Ben Affleck is not a signatory to the touted “Human Artistry Campaign,” he is a well-known skeptic of Generative AI, having downplayed the technology’s actual ability to replace humans multiple times.
Speaking on CNBC in November 2024, Affleck said that movies would be one of the last things to be completely taken over by AI because, in his opinion, the technology can’t reproduce works as great as Shakespeare or match the product of coordinated acting by multiple actors on set. “What AI is gonna do is, it is gonna disintermediate the more laborious, less creative, and, you know, more costly aspects of filmmaking that will allow costs to be brought down,” Affleck predicted.
Surprisingly, he didn’t mention anything about his own AI company, which was well underway at the time and which could now be on its way to cut the same jobs he mentioned at Netflix. As for reducing costs, AI tools have been in use for several years now, but there is no tangible proof that costs are going down.
During a January 2026 interview on the Joe Rogan podcast, Affleck once again upped his criticism, accusing big AI companies of overhyping their products in a bid to get investment. “If you try to get ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini to write you something, it is really shitty. And it is shitty because, by its nature, it goes to the mean, to the average, and it’s not reliable… I just can’t stand to see what it writes.” Affleck said on the podcast where he appeared alongside Matt Damon while promoting their Netflix movie The Rip.
He still admitted that AI is a great tool for research and can be comfortably adopted as an assistant, but the technology is nowhere near replacing human beings as widely feared by many in the industry, in his opinion. “I actually don’t think it’s very likely that it is gonna be able to write anything meaningful, or, in particular, that it is gonna be making whole movies, like from cloth, like Tilly Norwood, like, that’s bullshit. I don’t think that is gonna happen,” he added.
Despite the interview coming just a month before its completion, Ben Affleck’s deal with Netflix for InterPositive never came up during the podcast once again. His tone, however, seemed to demonize Generative AI, a trend that is slowly being normalized in Hollywood. According to Affleck, the widespread fear of AI as an existential threat doesn’t align with facts suggesting the technology is not being adopted as widely as previously feared, and its advancement is not as rapid as AI companies suggest.
“I think a lot of that rhetoric comes from people who are trying to justify valuations around companies, where they go, ‘we are gonna change everything. In two years, there’s gonna be no more work.’ But the reason they are saying that is they need to ascribe a valuation for investment that can warrant the cap expenditure they are gonna make on these data centers,” Affleck said, using the data and electricity cost of ChatGPT5 compared to its 25 percent advancement from ChatGPT4 as an example.
As for Non-Generative AI, Affleck praised it as a key tool in the future of the industry, comparing it to visual effects and other technologies that have come over the years. His sentiments actually seemed to praise the same capabilities associated with his AI company. “I think the guilds are gonna manage this where it is like ‘okay, look, if this is a tool that actually helps us, for example, we don’t have to go to the North Pole. Right? We can shoot a scene here, in our parks, and, you know, whatever it is, but make it appear very realistcally as if we were in the North Pole. That’ll save us a lot of money, a lot of time. We are gonna focus on performances and not be freezing our ass out there and running back inside, that’s useful,'” he said.
Affleck’s comments may make a lot of sense, but they ignore the fact that Predictive AI and Autonomous Decision-Making AI pose an even greater threat, this time, to another class of people who are also key to the running of Hollywood, despite not being as vocal. His mention of the guilds in the interview is especially important because AI was a major factor in the 118-day-long 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.
As part of the agreement that concluded the strike, filmmakers are required to seek actors’ consent before using their images or likenesses in films. Members of the Association of Motion Pictures and Television Producers also need the guilds’ approval when using Generative AI in their production. That agreement being so specific to the type of AI in question, unfortunately, now means that studios don’t have to report the use of other types of AI. The agreement essentially left a huge number of creatives and other employees of the industry with zero recourse, despite actually facing the greater risk of being replaced by AI.
From sound and video editors to extras and backstage staff like makeup crews and set maintenance employees, the people who work on the labor-intensive half of Hollywood are really the worst affected by Non-Generative AI. However, Ben Affleck and many Hollywood elites only seem to be bothered by Generative AI, which mostly affects the people whose names and faces appear on the screen.
For example, one of the most concerning developments regarding the place of AI in filmmaking is body scanning, which could see movie extras lose their job. An SAG-AFTRA representative recently condemned the practice, which could allow studios to use the digital replicas of background actors forever after paying them for just one day of appearance. However, none of the Hollywood elites came out in their support.
Meanwhile, the loudest condemnation of AI from Hollywood is directed at Generative AI tools. The sentiment intensified in October 2025 when the controversial AI actress, Tilly Norwood, was reported to be on the verge of being picked up by a talent agent in Hollywood. Generative AI is also the central focus of the human artistry campaigners, including Avatar director James Cameron, who said he banned the use of Generative AI tools on Avatar: Fire and Ash. Cameron’s efforts to protect human artistry by using regular motion capture and visual effects in the Avatar franchise have to be lauded. However, shifting the posts from not using AI at all to only banning Generative AI opened a whole can of worms.
Hollywood’s relationship with AI remains controversial, as the technology continues to be demonized by some despite already being adopted by major studios. During the 2025 Zurich Film Festival, the CEO of Luma AI’s Dream Labs LA, Verena Puhm, said that all major studios in Hollywood were secretly working on AI projects despite the technology being widely condemned for its human cost on the industry. Netflix’s purchase of InterPositive AI is, therefore, one of many that are bound to come to light soon, cementing AI’s place in the future of Hollywood.
InterPositive AI is also just one of many AI startups in Hollywood linked to some of the biggest names in the industry. Other known AI companies that have received investment or support from Hollywood elites include Elevenlabs, supported by Mathew McCounaghey, Largo AI, supported by Sylvester Stallone, and Captions, which is supported by Jared Leto, among others. With so much VC money flowing into all types of AI startups, looking at Generative AI as the only threat to Hollywood, therefore, feels shortsighted to say the least.
