Ben Affleck's take on Hollywood and AI shocks fans

Ben Affleck accused AI of being a threat to Hollywood as the acting icon impressed with a strong speech against the emerging technology, already used by companies such as Disney and Coca-Cola.

The tech offers the chance to reduce costs and time to produce content by no longer requiring a person to be commissioned to make any art, which can also be turned over faster, whilst it is also becoming deployed in film and television too.

For example, Disney deployed AI to bring Grand Moff Tarkin back to life in 2016's Rogue One Star Wars film, before repeating the method when they used deep fakes to bring a youthful Luke Skywalker to The Mandalorian.

And for the 52-year-old, who has starred in box office hits such as Pearl Harbor, Gone Girl and as the DCEU's Batman, he is firmly opposed to the developing technology and slammed it as a danger to the industry.

"Movies will be one of the last things, if everything gets replaced, to be replaced by AI," Affleck told CNBC's Delivering Alpha 2024 investor summit. "AI can write you excellent, imitative verse that sounds Elizabethan. It cannot write you Shakespeare.'

"What AI is going to do is going to disintermediate the more laborious, less creative and more costly aspects of filmmaking that will allow costs to be brought down.

"That will lower the barrier for entry, that will allow more voices to be heard, that will make it easier for the people that want to make Good Will Hunting to go out and make it."

Fans love Affleck's rant

Affleck went on to declare that the film and television industry would survive regardless because computers simply cannot match the instinctive and natural creativity of humans, but added AI will put Hollywood's production industry under strain, notably visual effects.

And fans loved it as one of the biggest names in modern television and film rushed to the defence of the little guys in the industry, as they took to X.com (formerly Twitter) to celebrate his opinions.

One user said, "Didn't expect Ben Affleck to have the most articulate and realistic explanation where video models and Hollywood is going."

A second added, "I've never listened to Affleck before, but this is a response that shows a strong understanding of his industry and its likely relationship with AI."

And a third wrote, "This is one of the most grounded takes on generative AI I've seen. People have yet to grasp that it imitates rather than creates."