Ben Affleck pushes back on AI fears in Hollywood on Joe Rogan’s podcast

Actor Ben Affleck has pushed back on some fears about the impact of AI on the film industry, arguing that the technology will be used as a “tool” to streamline workflows to manually create workflows “in all places where it’s expensive and cumbersome” rather than creating the entire film.

During an appearance “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Affleck talked about how he believes artificial intelligence will change film production: belittle concerns Other Hollywood figures have made statements about the technology.

“I actually don’t think it’s very likely that he’ll be able to do that; he’ll be able to write anything meaningful or make films that are entirely out of cloth, especially like Tilly Norwood, like bulls. I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he suggested.

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The Tilly Norwood that Affleck mentioned is a virtual actor produced entirely by artificial intelligence, created by Eline van der Velden’s company Particle6 in 2025. The virtual actor went viral after it was announced, sparking debate in the film industry about the role of artificial intelligence in replacing human roles.

Rather than using artificial intelligence to replace human roles and creativity, the actor argued that the technology is not there yet, contrary to what many people believe.

“I think it actually turned out that the technology wasn’t advancing exactly the way they were presenting it,” he said. “And it really will be a visual effects-like tool, and yes, there needs to be language around that.”

Affleck added that “you still need to protect your name and likeness” but that there are different methods and laws currently in place to protect actors and actresses from having their identities used without their consent.

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“I can’t sell your fuck picture for money. I can’t. You can sue me. I may have the ability to draw you in a very realistic way, but that’s already against the law,” he said, adding that unions and guilds would eventually step in to regulate the use of artificial intelligence.

Another possible use of AI that wouldn’t come at the expense of a human job, according to Affleck, would be to use the technology to simulate hard-to-reach locations that often send production costs through the roof.

Various AI tools such as ChatGPT are displayed on the smartphone screen. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“For example, we don’t need to go to the North Pole, right? We can shoot the scene here in our parkas and you know whatever it is, but then we make it look very realistic, like we’re in the North Pole,” he explained. “This will save us a lot of money and time. We’ll focus on the shows and not freeze outside and run back inside.”

The actor said fears surrounding AI likely stem from a human sense of “existential dread” tied to the emergence of powerful tools capable of changing the world as we know it.

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“It seems to me… there’s a lot more fear because we have this sense of existential dread. ‘This is going to destroy everything.’ But in my view this actually runs counter to the fact that adoption has been slow, as history has shown. “This is increasing,” he argued.

Aside from the human element of fear of the unknown, Affleck also claimed that a lot of the “rhetoric” about AI changing the world comes from companies building and using the technology in an effort to rationalize the amount of money they invest.

Affleck believes AI will help filmmakers create projects more efficiently. (Marilla Sicily)

“I think a lot of this rhetoric comes from people trying to justify the valuations around the companies they’re leaving: ‘We’re going to change everything in two years. There will be no more jobs,'” he argued.

“The reason they’re saying that is because they have to assign an investment valuation to these data centers that can warrant the CapEx spend that they’re going to make, with the argument that ‘You know, as soon as we build the next model, it’s going to scale, it could be three times better,’ but actually ChatGPT 5 — it’s about 25% better than ChatGPT 4 and about four times more costly in terms of electricity and data. So they’re saying it’s like, the line went up very steeply in the first AI, and now it’s kind of leveling off.”

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