AI is a sensitive subject in the entertainment industry. It even led to a widespread industry shutdown in 2023. Perhaps that is why it came as a surprise to learn that a leading Hollywood actor/director/screenwriter/producer has quietly been working on a generative AI post-production tool called InterPositive. This information came to light when Netflix announced it had inked a deal with that person, Ben Affleck, and his partners to acquire the technology. Both the studio and InterPositive developers say the tool assists filmmakers while keeping creative decisions in the hands of the filmmakers.
(Source: Netflix)
Many Hollywood stars are going to great lengths to protect themselves from AI stealing their likeness and their means of making living. Is Ben Affleck one of them, or is he is of the mindset, “If you can’t beat them, join them”?
The Oscar-winning actor, screenwriter, productor, and director had been seriously working on an AI solution for filmmakers during the time when his colleagues and friends were striking over their concerns regarding the technology. Few people knew about this, and those who did were obviously keeping it a secret. That is, until recently, when late last week Netflix announced that it had acquired Affleck’s AI start-up, called InterPositive, for what could top out at a cool $600 million if certain provisions are met.
Why would Affleck risk the wrath of his Hollywood brethren to unleash what can be considered the industry’s public enemy No. 1? In a written statement from Affleck and released by Netflix, he said he began exploring the technology after finding that AI used in film production was sorely lacking.
In a Netflix YouTube video discussion with two Netflix execs, Affleck says he understands why the industry is skeptical of AI—the early iterations of what was being done with generative AI in video scared him as well. Affleck says he saw what he believed to be a real opportunity and a real authentic danger. But, most importantly, he thought AI to be a really meaningful innovation.
What especially bothered him was the lack of any filmic or artistic information among all the deep engineering math and science that’s involved.
“I was worried this was a technology that was going to grow outside of the ecosystem of filmmakers and artists,” Affleck states in the video. “I did this because I love it, I am passionate about it, and I want to protect this industry that we all love.”
Nevertheless, Affleck says he believed there was an opportunity to change course and lead and shape this technology instead of being shaped by it.
What makes InterPositive different?
Affleck’s foray into AI development began several years ago and lead him to seek investments and partnerships. In what shows what a small world this really is, Affleck’s longtime collaborator and business partner, Matt Damon, is rumored to be a co-founder of InterPositive, along with RedBird Capital Partners’ Gerry Cardinale, who just happens to be a co-founder of Affleck and Damon’s film company, Artists Equity. And keep in mind that Artists Equity recently signed a first-look streaming deal with Netflix that gives the streaming company priority access to films that Artists Equity develops and produces.)
Along with a small group of engineers, researchers, and creatives, Affleck began filming a proprietary dataset on a controlled soundstage with all the familiarities of a full production. He states he wanted to build a workflow that captures what happens on a set, with vocabulary that matched the language cinematographers and directors already use and included the consistency and controls they would expect. The group’s first model was trained to understand visual logic and editorial consistency, while preserving cinematic rules under real-world production challenges—i.e., missing shots, background replacements, incorrect lighting.
They also built in restraints to protect creative intent, so while the tools are designed for responsible exploration, they keep creative decisions in the hands artists, Affleck says in the video discussion.
Ben Affleck. (Source: Bethany Mollenk/Netflix © 2026)
So, what is InterPositive? It is billed as a production technology built by filmmakers—a tool that helps filmmakers work more efficiency in post. Affleck describes it as a tool designed to solve the specific problems that he, as a filmmaker, encounter, which connects users to the filmmaking.
“It’s not about text prompting or generating something from nothing. You are building a model from your own material,” he states.
Essentially, a person has to create their movie first before they can build their model around their movie by using AI. At that point, the person has their model and they control it, Affleck notes. The filmmaker uses the technology, he says, to learn from their own film dailies, then introduces it into the post process to improve the editorial process.
Affleck says initially colleagues are startled and unnerved when they see the tool. Then they want to know what this all means.
“I say, ‘You and I can go shoot a movie on a stage, and we can really focus on the performance, tension, meaning, and humanity of it,’” Affleck explains. “I want to take out all the logistical, difficult, technical stuff that often gets in the way.”
With InterPositive, the filmmaker uses their own model to remove wires on stunts, reframe a shot, get a shot they missed, and they can do it more quickly and easily, and are getting more choices, more opportunity—and more human work, says Affleck.
Now, the ball goes back to Netflix as to why the streaming company would make such a deal, given the sizable investment of up to $600 million if certain performance goals are met (though what those parameters have not been publicly disclosed, and neither has been the amount Netflix has initially shelled out.) The answer seems obvious—It is the future that the industry cannot ignore. However, it is one that is still in its early stages, and it appears InterPositive offers a solution that keeps the core filmmaking principles and artistry still intact.
Still, with such a sizable monetary investment on the line, not to mention the industry’s possible future, Netflix is not leaving its big bet to chance. InterPositive’s small team will now join Netflix, with Affleck maintaining an active advisory role.
Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, says in the video that the InterPositive technology is designed to support creators, and creators and their artistic intentions at the center of everything Netflix does. “It’s not always about cheaper, it’s really about better,” she says.
Netflix is no stranger to the use of AI in its projects, garnering attention for an AI effects scene in its series Eternaut.
Elizabeth Stone, Netflix chief product and technology officer, states in the video, “It’s not new to Netflix to work with technology—we’ve been working with ML and AI for a long time, but always in service of responsible use of technology versus technology for technology’s sake.” She adds that Netflix has the shared belief as Affleck and company that innovation should empower storytellers, not replace them.
Perhaps Affleck provides the most insightful take on the use of AI in filmmaking, pointing out that the filmmaking process, from its inception, has been one long technological progression, evolving alongside the artists who use it. “We’ve always been seeking to make it more realistic, more honest,” he says, and hopes InterPositive is just one more step in that long history.
As an aside, the term “interpositive” (aka, Intermediate positive) is term that is used within the film industry. Wikipedia defines it as “a motion picture film with a positive image made from the edited camera negative.”
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