LAGOS, Nigeria(VOICE OF NAIJA)- Hollywood star Ben Affleck is expanding his influence beyond the camera into filmmaker-focused artificial intelligence after Netflix acquired his four-year-old startup InterPositive, a technology venture designed to reshape how movies are crafted in the digital age.
The streaming giant confirmed that the acquisition will bring InterPositive’s full 16-person team of engineers, researchers, and creatives into Netflix, marking a strategic move to arm filmmakers with advanced AI tools in an industry that is rapidly evolving.
Although the acquisition price has been kept under wraps, the award winning actor will remain closely involved, serving as a senior adviser to the company and providing ongoing guidance as the technology is integrated into Netflix’s production ecosystem.
Unlike many AI video tools currently flooding the market, InterPositive’s technology is designed to support the existing workflows of filmmakers rather than generate films from text prompts. Netflix says that it plans to make the tools available to its creative partners internally while keeping them off the commercial marketplace.
“It’s not about text-prompting or generating something from nothing. AI, people mostly think of it as making something from nothing: ‘I’m gonna type something into a computer and it’s gonna give me a movie.’ That’s not what this is,” Affleck said.
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Instead, InterPositive’s system builds an AI model using a production’s existing footage, known in filmmaking as dailies. Filmmakers can then apply the model during postproduction to enhance processes such as color grading, relighting scenes, mixing elements or adding visual effects while preserving the creative intent of the original footage.
Notably, Netflix executives say the move reflects a long-standing commitment to creative collaboration with artists rather than automation replacing them.
In the words of Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria, “Our relationship with artists has always been grounded in trust: supporting the full range of their creativity and ensuring they have the power to decide how their films and shows are made. We believe new tools should expand creative freedom, not constrain it or replace the work of writers, directors, actors and crews. Ben and his team at InterPositive are part of a long tradition in our industry of artists leading the way in how innovation is used in storytelling.”
Focused on making filmmaking easy for creatives, the Chief Product and Technology Officer at Netflix, Elizabeth Stone, explained that a lot of generative AI platforms currently available overlook the realities of film production.
“Our approach to AI has always been focused on meaningfully serving the needs of the creative community and our members. The InterPositive team is joining Netflix because of our shared belief that innovation should empower storytellers, not replace them,” Stone said.
Affleck founded his Los Angeles-based startup InterPositive in 2022 to address gaps in early AI tools for film. The company filmed a proprietary dataset on a controlled soundstage to replicate real production conditions, training its first AI model to handle visual logic, editorial consistency, and common filmmaking challenges like missing shots, background replacements, and lighting inconsistencies.
“In 2022, I spent a lot of time observing the early rise of AI in production… I could see how these models came up short. For artists to apply these tools towards telling the stories we dedicate our lives to, they need to be purpose-built to represent and protect all the qualities that make a great story. We also built in restraints to protect creative intent. The tools are designed for responsible exploration while keeping creative decisions in the hands of artists and ensuring that the benefits of this technology flow directly back to the story they’re trying to tell,” Affleck explained.
Concluding, Affleck expressed optimism about the next phase of the technology under Netflix’s banner, stating, “I couldn’t be happier for this work to continue with the team at Netflix, and look forward to providing the broader creative community with access to what we build and the future we’re working towards together.”
