LOS ANGELES — Ben Affleck is fed up with what he calls "propaganda" against artificial intelligence as he has become one of Hollywood's most vocal proponents of the emerging technology.Affleck made headlines in July when it was announced that Netflix paid him a whopping $587 million for his AI startup InterPositive, a venture virtually no one in the industry knew he had been working on.Appearing Wednesday at the Bloomberg Screentime summit, Affleck was asked about the "cynical take" critics had over the deal, which claimed Netflix bought his company so it can do "despicable things" with AI with a reputable filmmaker attached to "provide cover.""Well, that's a very cynical view indeed," Affleck reacted to the question.NETFLIX CHIEF ADMITS TRUMP IS HELPING SHOWBIZ INDUSTRY AS FEDERAL TAX CREDIT BILL AIMS TO FUEL HOLLYWOOD JOBSOscar-winning filmmaker and actor Ben Affleck speaks at Bloomberg Screentime 2026 in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday, Sept.30, 2026.
(Joseph A.Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)The Oscar-winning writer and producer insisted Netflix isn't in a position to do "despicable things" and alienate artists because "they need to be in business with people," describing the streamer as being "super judicious" when it comes to his various projects."I'm sitting down with directors going, 'Look, man, you can just, you can change the background here, you can do this, you can do that.' And what I find is that filmmakers and people — once they sit with it and have a sense of control and a sense of understanding what's happening, and it moves from this nebulous abstract terrifying alien, you know, 'It's gonna to kill us all like we're paper clips…' all this propaganda," Affleck said. "And they actually see what it is — it's another form of computing that does tools and is a technological advancement that's really in keeping with a long-standing series of technological improvements we've made in the film and television business."CONAN O'BRIEN COMPARES DECLI...