AI-generated reveals may exchange misplaced DVD income, Ben Affleck says
Final week, actor and director Ben Affleck shared his views on AI’s position in filmmaking through the 2024 CNBC Delivering Alpha investor summit, arguing that AI fashions will remodel visible results however will not exchange inventive filmmaking anytime quickly. A video clip of Affleck’s opinion started circulating extensively on social media not lengthy after.
“Didn’t count on Ben Affleck to have essentially the most articulate and lifelike clarification the place video fashions and Hollywood goes,” wrote one X person.
Within the clip, Affleck spoke of present AI fashions’ talents as imitators and conceptual translators—mimics which are sometimes higher at translating one model into one other as an alternative of originating deeply inventive materials.
“AI can write wonderful imitative verse, but it surely can’t write Shakespeare,” Affleck informed CNBC’s David Faber. “The operate of getting two, three, or 4 actors in a room and the style to discern and assemble that solely eludes AI’s functionality.”
Affleck sees AI fashions as “craftsmen” fairly than artists (though some may discover the time period “craftsman” in his analogy considerably imprecise). He defined that whereas AI can be taught via imitation—like a craftsman learning furniture-making strategies—it lacks the inventive judgment that defines artistry. “Craftsman is realizing the right way to work. Artwork is realizing when to cease,” he mentioned.
“It is not going to switch human beings making movies,” Affleck said. As a substitute, he sees AI taking on “the extra laborious, much less inventive and extra pricey facets of filmmaking,” which may decrease obstacles to entry and make it simpler for rising filmmakers to create films like Good Will Searching.
Movies will turn out to be dramatically cheaper to make
Whereas it could appear on its floor like Affleck was attacking generative AI capabilities within the tech business, he additionally didn’t deny the affect it could have on filmmaking. For instance, he predicted that AI would cut back prices and pace up manufacturing schedules, probably permitting reveals like HBO’s Home of the Dragon to launch two seasons in the identical interval because it takes to make one.
