Ben Affleck says his first close look at artificial intelligence gave him a “heart attack.” Now the filmmaker is using AI in his own productions — including his upcoming Netflix thriller Animals — while arguing that the technology should support filmmakers rather than replace them.
Artificial intelligence is moving deeper into Hollywood production, and one of the industry’s most recognizable filmmakers is now putting the technology directly into his workflow.
Speaking at Bloomberg’s Screentime event in Los Angeles, Affleck described his initial reaction to seeing what AI could do. He said he immediately called Matt Damon and joked that they needed to make as many movies as possible because filmmakers could soon be finished.
But instead of simply resisting the technology, Affleck decided to explore how AI could be developed specifically to help creative professionals. Business Insider reported on his approach.
From AI Anxiety to an AI Production Company
Affleck’s response was to create InterPositive, an AI technology company focused on filmmaking.
Rather than building a system designed simply to generate movies from text prompts, Affleck said the company wanted to develop tools that could work alongside filmmakers.
One of the biggest issues for him was the data used to train AI systems.
Affleck was uncomfortable with the idea of models learning from the proprietary work of other filmmakers and artists without their involvement. His solution was to build a more controlled training dataset.
According to Affleck, his team spent approximately eight months shooting footage specifically to train AI models for cinematic applications. The company used existing open models and then enhanced them using its own professionally captured material. Business Insider reported.
That approach is particularly interesting for the VFX and post-production community because it points toward a different model for AI filmmaking: AI trained around controlled production assets rather than an unknown mixture of copyrighted creative work.
Netflix Paid $587 Million for InterPositive
Affleck’s experiment eventually attracted one of Hollywood’s biggest streaming companies.
Netflix acquired InterPositive for $587 million, according to Business Insider and Reuters reporting.
The acquisition illustrates how seriously major entertainment companies are taking AI-assisted production.
Instead of treating AI purely as a consumer-facing generative technology, the industry is increasingly looking at it as infrastructure that could become part of professional filmmaking and post-production.
That could include tools for workflows where artists remain responsible for the creative decisions while AI helps accelerate repetitive or technically demanding processes.
Affleck Used AI on Animals
The most interesting part for filmmakers is that Affleck has already taken the technology into an actual feature production.
His upcoming thriller Animals, which he directed and co-wrote, used AI for “lots of things,” according to Affleck. He said much of the AI use occurred during post-production. Business Insider reported.
However, he has deliberately avoided explaining exactly where the technology was used.
Affleck compared revealing the details to a magician explaining how a trick works. For a filmmaker, revealing every technical process behind a shot could potentially interfere with the audience’s perception of the finished work.
That means we currently cannot say that Animals contains AI-generated shots or characters. Affleck has confirmed AI involvement, but he has not publicly identified the specific tools, shots or individual production tasks involved. Tbreak Media UAE also noted the distinction.
That distinction is important.
AI Doesn’t Mean “Type a Prompt, Get a Movie”
Affleck is also pushing back against the idea that AI will simply allow someone to type a sentence and automatically produce a great feature film.
He doesn’t believe that will happen.
Instead, his argument is that AI should function more like another technological tool available to filmmakers.
That distinction matters because filmmaking involves much more than generating images.
A professional production still requires:
- Story development
- Directing
- Acting
- Cinematography
- Production design
- Editing
- VFX supervision
- Animation
- Sound design
- Colour grading
- Creative decision-making
AI can potentially accelerate individual parts of those workflows, but the creative responsibility still has to be managed across the entire production.
A Different Future for VFX and Post-Production
This is where Affleck’s approach becomes particularly relevant to VFX artists.
The most significant impact of AI may not initially be the creation of complete movies.
Instead, AI could become increasingly integrated into existing production pipelines.
Imagine a post-production environment where artists can use AI to assist with selected tasks while retaining direct control over the result.
For example:
Artist → AI-assisted operation → Artist review → Refinement → Final shot
rather than:
Prompt → AI → Finished movie
That distinction could become increasingly important.
The first model keeps the artist in the production loop. The second attempts to remove much of the production process altogether.
Affleck clearly says he supports the first approach. He argues that AI should allow people in the creative economy to benefit from the technology rather than eliminate them. Business Insider reported.
The Big Question: Who Controls the Data?
Affleck’s comments also highlight one of the biggest unresolved issues surrounding AI filmmaking.
If an AI system learns from professional films, performances, photographs, animation or VFX created by artists, who owns the resulting capability?
Affleck’s answer is to build a more controlled ecosystem.
His company used its own captured footage to improve existing models, while allowing filmmakers to further train systems using their own production material. The goal is to preserve the proprietary nature of that footage and the knowledge derived from it.
This could become an increasingly important model for studios and production companies.
Instead of uploading sensitive production material to an unrestricted system, studios could potentially work with controlled AI environments trained around their own assets and workflows.
Animals Arrives October 9
The timing makes the story particularly relevant.
Animals is scheduled to arrive on Netflix on October 9, 2026, with a select theatrical release. Netflix lists the release information.
The film stars Affleck alongside Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun and Gillian Anderson. The story follows a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped, forcing the family into a dangerous race to raise the ransom.
For audiences, the film may therefore become an interesting real-world example of AI-assisted filmmaking — even if most viewers never notice where the technology was used.
And that may actually be the point.
The Best AI VFX May Be the AI You Don’t Notice
For VFX artists, this could be the most interesting lesson from Affleck’s comments.
The objective of visual effects has traditionally been to make the impossible look real.
If AI becomes another production technology, its success may ultimately be measured by the same principle.
If audiences notice the technology before they notice the story, something may have gone wrong.
Affleck’s reluctance to reveal exactly how AI was used in Animals reflects that philosophy. The technology is there to support the finished film, not necessarily become the subject of it.
Hollywood is still debating where the boundaries should be drawn around AI, from employment and copyright to digital likenesses and creative ownership.
But Affleck’s journey shows how quickly the conversation is changing.
He went from worrying that AI could make filmmakers obsolete to building a company around using the technology responsibly — and eventually selling that company to Netflix for $587 million.
The next question is no longer simply whether Hollywood will use AI.
It is how much of the filmmaking pipeline AI will eventually become part of — and how much control artists will retain.
