Netflix buys Ben Affleck’s AI film tech company, InterPositive

In 2022, Ben Affleck has become so obsessed with AI in film production that he quietly launched his own film technology company, InterPositive.

Netflix put the startup in the spotlight Thursday morning by announcing the full acquisition of the company. InterPositive’s mission, which focuses on developing “AI-driven tools built by and for filmmakers” and using new technologies to “protect and expand creative choice,” will now be exclusive to Netflix. In a press release, the streamer said it is “investing in creator-led innovation that keeps filmmakers at the center of the process.”

Netflix said it would bring on the entire InterPostive team and retain Affleck as a senior advisor in the acquisition.

“The InterPositive team joins Netflix because of our shared belief that innovation should empower storytellers, not replace them,” said Elizabeth Stone, Netflix’s chief product and technology officer. “InterPositive’s impressive technology is purpose-built to enable filmmakers and showrunners to work with tools that naturally support their creative visions and how they want to bring them to life. »

Before founding his company, Affleck — best known for films like 2012’s “Argo,” “Pearl Harbor” (2001) and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016) — said he noticed how insufficient AI technology was in the production arena.

At the launch of InterPositive, the 53-year-old actor said he wanted to keep a “human narrative.” So he teamed up with a group of engineers to develop a proprietary data set about a controlled soundstage, similar to a full-fledged production, and began building his first AI model.

He said the model is “trained to understand visual logic and editorial consistency, while preserving cinematic rules in the face of real-world production challenges such as missing shots, background replacements or incorrect lighting,” while “keeping creative decisions in the hands of the artists.”

Affleck’s deal with Netflix on AI comes at a time when much of Hollywood is critical of the technology and skeptical of the industry’s biggest companies.

SAG-AFTRA, the actors union of which Affleck is a member, is negotiating a new contract with major studios and proposing new AI provisions designed to protect human talent. A handful of Hollywood studios recently sent legal threats to Chinese tech company ByteDance over unauthorized use of copyrighted material in its new AI video platform, Seedance 2.0.