For all the anxiety surrounding AI—from fears that it will destroy jobs to predictions that it could even wipe out humanity—one Hollywood star thinks people may be making the technology seem scarier than it actually is.
Ben Affleck, the actor and screenwriter known for films like Good Will Hunting, believes that growing fears surrounding AI are largely “propaganda”—and once people sit down and use it, they realize it can be a tool for good.
“[Once] it moves from this nebulous, abstract, terrifying alien—‘It’s going to kill us all, we’re paperclips, and it’s going to wipe out half of white-collar jobs, all this propaganda’—and they actually see what it is, it’s like another form of computing that does tools and is a technological advancement,” Affleck recently told Bloomberg.
Affleck has been one of the most vocal supporters of AI technology in the industry. In 2022, he founded InterPositive, an AI-focused filmmaking startup, and earlier this year, it was reportedly purchased by Netflix for $587 million.
But when asked about the role of AI in producing his new movie Animals, Affleck wasn’t eager to pull back the curtain on exactly how the technology is playing a role in production.
“I’m a little bit hesitant to point out what they are or even talk about it because in my business, we’re trying to foster the illusion of reality,” he said. “It’s like if you went to a magic show and the magician walked out and said, just before I start, I want you to know there’s another bunny under here, this guy’s a plant—it sort of ruins it.”
Affleck worries about AI’s impact on Gen Z and Gen Alpha—but thinks Hollywood can adapt
Affleck, whose net worth is estimated at $300 million, isn’t bullish on every aspect of AI. In particular, he worries about how the technology could affect education—and whether people will become too reliant on it.
“When I worry about AI, I worry about my kids in school, I worry about the 30% rise in the number of As given out at colleges in the last three years,” Affleck said. “I worry about learned helplessness. I worry about responsible use.”
That tension, between using AI as a tool and becoming overly dependent on it, has become one of the central debates across industries. In Hollywood, Affleck said, he hasn’t seen AI being used to just “smash costs or do heinous things.” Instead, he sees the technology augmenting rather than replacing workers.
“It’s being used on films now where they have the same number of people—in fact, more people technically are being employed,” Affleck said.
Affleck’s experience, however, comes against a backdrop of declining employment in the broader motion picture and video production industry. Between 2016 and 2026, the industry shed 49,000 jobs, a decline of 21%, according to Labor Department data.
From James Cameron to Matthew McConaughey, Hollywood is figuring out how to embrace AI
Affleck is not alone among Hollywood figures in arguing that AI is a technology the industry needs to embrace, even as they differ over how it should be used and regulated.
Billionaire James Cameron, who notably directed The Terminator, has gone so far as to take a formal role in the industry’s AI development, joining the board of AI company Stability AI in 2024.
Actor Natasha Lyonne, known for on-screen roles in Netflix’s Russian Doll and Orange is the New Black” has also embraced the technology while emphasizing the importance of protecting artists’ rights. She is the cofounder of Asteria Film Co., an artist-led animation and film studio that aims to develop copyright-friendly generative AI for film and other creative work.
Lyonne has argued that Hollywood needs to be involved in shaping how AI is developed rather than simply resisting it.
“I don’t think it’s super kosher copacetic to just kind of rob freely under the auspices of acceleration or China,” she said at Fortune’s Brainstorm AI conference last year.
“We need human beings in AI so that the tools don’t run us,” Lyonne added.
Matthew McConaughey has echoed the idea that Hollywood cannot simply sit out the AI revolution.
“It’s not coming. It’s here,” he said in a CNN Town Hall in February. McConaughey has reportedly filed a series of trademarks covering his image and signature expressions to make it harder for AI companies or bad actors to simulate him without permission.
“Don’t deny it,” McConaughey said in a recent conversation alongside actor Timothée Chalamet. “It’s not enough to sit on the sidelines and make the moral plea that this is wrong. That’s not going to last.”
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