🎬 Why Ben Affleck Still Believes Hollywood’s Soul Is Safe from AI
At CNBC’s Delivering Alpha investor summit, Ben Affleck delivered a refreshingly optimistic take on the future of AI in filmmaking—and why Hollywood itself isn’t going anywhere.
🧠AI as Assistant, Not Auteur
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Affleck didn’t mince words: “**Movies will be one of the last things… to be replaced by AI. Creating a movie from scratch with AI is not possible now—and, he says, “highly unlikely in the future.”Head Topics+14EW.com+14distinctpost.com+14
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AI might be capable of imitating Elizabethan prose, but it lacks the spark of originality that defines true artistry. As he put it:
“AI can write you excellent imitative verse … it cannot write you Shakespeare.”TechBriefly+10EW.com+10Newsweek+10
🛠️ Craftsman vs. Artist
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Affleck casts AI as a masterful craftsman, able to replicate existing styles—but artists, he says, bring something else entirely:
“Craftsmanship is knowing how to work. Art is knowing when to stop.”Comic Sands+2Cinemablend+2distinctpost.com+2The News International+6MovieMaker+6distinctpost.com+6
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That human touch—intuitive taste, judgment, collaboration—is something AI simply doesn’t possess… at least not yet.
⚙️ Democratizing Creativity
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A major upside: AI can reduce labor-intensive tasks, cut costs, and ultimately lower barriers to entry. That means more filmmakers and stories getting their shots.arxiv.org+15EW.com+15Business Today+15
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Affleck said, “AI might make your backgrounds more convincing… change the color of your shirt… fix mistakes… you might be able to get two seasons of House of the Dragon in a year instead of one.”Newsweek+3EW.com+3geo.tv+3
⚠️ One Big Caveat: VFX Jobs
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Not every corner of the film industry will be shielded—visual effects may be the hardest hit. Why? AI could make rendering and compositing far cheaper, impacting many tech-heavy jobs.EW.com