Netflix is diving headfirst into AI with the acquisition of Ben Affleck's startup

AI is no longer a taboo subject in Hollywood. Rather than acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix has announced the purchase of the company InterPositive and the integration of its entire team into its own workforce. Ben Affleck has officially joined the streaming giant as a principal advisor. The actor and director explains having founded this company in 2022 after realizing that the first AI models were completely unsuitable for the real constraints of filming.

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The goal of his young startup was to design a technology capable of understanding the visual logic and editorial coherence of a real film production. The engineers therefore trained their algorithms on closed set locations to teach them how to manage complex environments involving background replacements or lighting corrections. Ben Affleck repeats emphatically that these new models are exclusively "focused on cinematic techniques, rather than on actor performances". The idea is to protect human judgment and leave the total control of creative decisions in the hands of the artists.

A logical evolution for the platform

This acquisition marks a historical turning point for Netflix, which usually prefers internal development over acquiring external companies. Elizabeth Stone, the platform's product and technology director, justifies this partnership by explaining that InterPositive's technology is specifically designed to naturally support the vision of series creators. Bela Bajaria, the content director, adds that these new tools must expand creative freedom without ever constraining or replacing the work of screenwriters, directors, or technical teams.

This semantic caution is easily explained by the tense climate that has prevailed in Hollywood since the major strikes of 2023. The use of artificial intelligence remains an extremely sensitive issue for workers' unions. To avoid reigniting this social backlash, management therefore chose to introduce these new tools in a very gradual manner and under strict supervision.

From Theory to Practice

The integration of artificial intelligence into original productions is not a new concept for the video-on-demand service. Last year, Netflix had indeed finally admitted that its Argentine series The Eternaut featured computer-generated special effects. Ted Sarandos was pleased at the time to have been able to achieve the collapse of a building ten times faster than with traditional methods while respecting a very tight budget.

In response to the growing concerns within the industry following this first experiment, management had quickly established a strict regulatory framework. The platform had notably required an obligatory written authorization for any use of artificial intelligence involving the digital aging of actors or the replication of their voices. The arrival of Ben Affleck and his in-house algorithms within Netflix's direction should logically accelerate this technological shift while trying to reassure unions about the absolute respect for human work.

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Source : The Hollywood Reporter