[Edaily Starin YUN GI BACK Reporter] “Man, we’re screwed.”
These were the words Hollywood star Ben Affleck blurted out when he called his close friend, actor Matt Damon, after seeing a video created by generative artificial intelligence (AI) for the first time. He was shocked by the sight of cinematic footage being created with just a few keystrokes. It stemmed from his fear that AI could shake up the film industry. Surprisingly, however, instead of shunning AI, Ben Affleck started his own AI company. The actor who once worried about the future of film has transformed into a tech entrepreneur.

Ben Affleck first became interested in AI around 2022. He visited tech companies like Google and OpenAI to examine the systems they were developing. At first, he worried that technology capable of creating footage without actors or filming equipment could shake the very foundations of film production. However, as he took a closer look at the technology, his perspective changed.
While the footage generated by AI looked convincing, it had limitations in accurately recreating the scenes a director envisioned or maintaining consistency between characters and backgrounds. It also failed to fully grasp the complex processes of filmmaking, such as lighting and camera movements.
Ben Affleck saw a business opportunity here. He concluded that the technology would have potential if, rather than replacing filmmakers, it helped creators achieve their desired results.
In 2022, Ben Affleck founded InterPositive, an AI film production company, and assembled a team of engineers, researchers, and visual effects experts. Over the course of about eight months, they shot footage themselves to build a proprietary training dataset. Rather than training the AI on other film studios’ works without permission, they developed technology specialized for film production using data they had acquired independently.
Unlike typical AI video-generation services, InterPositive focused on technology that enhances actual footage. This involves correcting scenes with improper lighting, replacing backgrounds, and filling in missing shots. The AI solves problems that previously required reshoots or complex post-production work. Ben Affleck revealed that he utilized this technology during the post-production of “Animals,” a film he directed and starred in.

Ben Affleck remains critical of the indiscriminate use of AI. He explained that he founded the company not to entrust filmmaking to AI, but to ensure that creators retain control over the technology. His vision is to use AI as a tool to assist production teams, rather than to replace actors or directors.
This approach caught Netflix’s attention. Netflix acquired Interpositive last March, and Ben Affleck joined as a senior advisor. This marked the sale of the company to the world’s largest over-the-top (OTT) service just four years after its founding.
The acquisition price also became a topic of discussion. A Netflix filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicated that a cash acquisition worth approximately $587 million (about 800 billion won) took place last March. Foreign media outlets, including *Variety*, reported this figure as the acquisition price for Interpositive. However, Ben Affleck refuted this in an interview with *GQ* on the 6th, stating, “That figure is incorrect.” He explained that he did not own the entire company and that employees and the production company Artists Equity also held shares. This is why the reported 800 billion won cannot be considered Ben Affleck’s personal profit.
Regardless of the exact acquisition amount, it is fascinating that an actor who once feared AI has now taken the plunge into technology development himself, ultimately leading to the acquisition by a global OTT platform. Ben Affleck, who once worried that AI would threaten Hollywood’s future, has now become a figure who is actively shaping that future.