Netflix acquires Ben Affleck's AI filmmaking company to expand post-production capabilities

Netflix buys Ben Affleck's AI filmmaking company InterPositive | TechCrunch

Netflix on Thursday morning said it is acquiring InterPositive, a filmmaking technology company founded in 2022 by actor Ben Affleck. The acquisition aligns with Netflix's approach to the use of generative AI in filmmaking: The company has already used generative AI for special effects in some original content, and has assured investors that it is "very well positioned to effectively leverage ongoing advances in AI." Affleck wrote in a statement that he began thinking about how AI would impact the future of filmmaking in 2022. He says he wanted to "preserve what makes human storytelling human, which is judgement," and sought to "protect the power of human creativity." InterPositive isn't trying to make AI actors or synthetic performances. Rather, the company has created a model that helps production teams work with footage from their own productions to help make edits in post-production, like addressing continuity issues, making lightning adjustments, or enhancements to the environment. "Intensive research and development led to our first model, trained to understand visual logic and editorial consistency, while preserving cinematic rules under real-world production challenges such as missing shots, background replacements or incorrect lighting," Affleck wrote. "We also built in restraints to protect creative intent, so 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 is joining Netflix as a senior advisor as part of the deal. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. "Our approach to AI has always been focused on meaningfully serving the needs of the creative community and our members," Elizabeth Stone, Netflix's chief product and technology officer, said in a statement. "The InterPositive team is joining Netflix because of our shared belief that innovation should empower storytellers, not replace them."

Netflix Acquires Ben Affleck-Founded AI Moviemaking Business

Netflix Inc. acquired InterPositive, an AI filmmaking technology business founded four years ago by actor Ben Affleck. The company uses artificial intelligence to help moviemakers perform tasks such as adjusting colors, applying visual effects and reframing shots, and learns as it goes. The tool is designed to be applied to a film in postproduction, not used to create a new one from scratch. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Affleck will join Netflix as a senior adviser, according to a statement Thursday. InterPositive employs about a dozen people. AI has a growing presence in Hollywood, with studios such as Walt Disney Co. and Paramount Skydance Corp. exploring use of the technology. It's also created concerns that the tools will put actors, screenwriters and other staffers out of work. Affleck observed the early use of AI in film production and was disappointed, according to the statement. He worked with a small team of engineers and researchers to create a proprietary dataset on a soundstage. "I saw what I thought was a real opportunity and a real authentic danger," he said. "But mostly I thought this is a really meaningful innovation." Affleck shared an Oscar for best original screenplay with Matt Damon for 1997's Good Will Hunting and won best picture as a producer of 2012's Argo. He produced and starred with Damon in the crime thriller The Rip for Netflix this year.

Netflix acquires Ben Affleck's AI film-tech firm

March 5 (Reuters) - Netflix (NFLX.O), opens new tab said on Thursday it has acquired InterPositive, a filmmaking technology company founded by Academy Award winner Ben Affleck that produces artificial intelligence-powered tools for movie production. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The media industry is warming up to the idea of using AI for content and storytelling, a major pivot from Hollywood's earlier concerns about the new technology challenging creative jobs and ⁠intellectual property rights. Late last year, Disney announced plans to allow OpenAI to use characters from its Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel franchises in the startup's Sora AI video generator. "We believe new tools should expand creative freedom, not constrain it or replace the work of writers, directors, actors, and crews," Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria said. The acquisition is the streaming giant's first since backing ⁠out of a high-stakes race to acquire Warner Bros Discovery's studio and streaming assets after Paramount Skydance's rival bid was deemed as superior. Affleck, director and star of Oscar-winning film "Argo", founded InterPositive in 2022 by ⁠creating an AI model trained to understand visual logic and editorial consistency, while maintaining cinematic rules under real-world production challenges such as missing ⁠shots or incorrect lighting. "We also built in restraints to protect creative intent, so the tools are designed for responsible exploration ⁠while keeping creative decisions in the hands of artists," Affleck said. Affleck will be joining Netflix as a senior advisor. Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Netflix just acquired an AI-tech filmmaking company - 9to5Mac

Netflix is no longer buying Warner Bros. Discovery or HBO Max, but the company just announced an entirely separate acquisition: InterPositive, a company founded by Ben Affleck that "develops AI-powered tools built by and for filmmakers." From Netflix's announcement: Today, Netflix, Inc. announced the acquisition of InterPositive, the filmmaking technology company founded by Ben Affleck that develops AI-powered tools built by and for filmmakers. InterPositive's mission -- to use emerging technology in ways that protect and expand creative choice -- is deeply aligned with Netflix's long-standing belief that innovation should serve storytellers and the creative process. For more than two decades, Netflix has paired technology with artistry to help great films and shows find their audience. By bringing InterPositive's entire team into Netflix through this acquisition, and with Affleck joining as Senior Advisor, we're investing in creator-led innovation that keeps filmmakers at the center of the process. Though financial terms have not been disclosed, this is clearly a far smaller acquisition for Netflix than its Warner Bros. bid. Size aside though, the news comes with potential ripple effects for the film and TV industry as a whole. The use of AI in film and TV production is still in its early days, and by acquiring InterPositive, Netflix shows that it wants to be at the forefront of innovation. That innovation, however, will likely come at the cost of industry jobs within the Hollywood community. InterPositive doesn't build tools that are meant to create films with a simple text prompt, the way an app like Sora might for shortform content. Instead, it focuses on taking portions of the production and post-production process and making them easier for the creatives involved. However, Netflix being a leader in this space means plenty of other companies -- perhaps even Apple -- will likely follow its example. How do you expect AI to reshape the film and TV industry moving forward? Let us know in the comments.

Netflix buys Ben Affleck's AI startup

Affleck founded InterPositive in 2022 after realizing that existing AI video models weren't ready to produce Hollywood-grade footage from scratch. "Together with a small team of engineers, researchers and creatives, I began filming a proprietary dataset on a controlled soundstage with all the familiarities of a full production," he says. With the help of this training data, InterPositive then developed its own video model, optimized for use in real-world production environments. "We also built in restraints to protect creative intent, so the tools are designed for responsible exploration while keeping creative decisions in the hands of artists," Affleck says. InterPositive has been operating in stealth until today, and a Netflix spokesperson declined to share details about the company's staff. However, a bit of digging revealed that InterPositive was originally incorporated as Fin Bone LLC, an entity that has applied for a number of patents related to AI filmmaking tools in the U.S. and overseas. (Those patents credit Affleck as the inventor.)

Netflix acquires Ben Affleck's AI film-tech firm - The Economic Times

Netflix said on Thursday it has acquired InterPositive, a filmmaking technology company founded by Academy Award winner Ben Affleck that produces artificial intelligence-powered tools for movie production.Netflix said on Thursday it has acquired InterPositive, a filmmaking technology company founded by Academy Award winner Ben Affleck that produces artificial intelligence-powered tools for movie production. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The media industry is warming up to the idea of ⁠using ⁠AI for content and storytelling, a major pivot from Hollywood's earlier concerns about the new technology challenging creative jobs and intellectual property rights. Late last year, Disney announced plans to allow OpenAI to use characters from its Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel franchises in the startup's ⁠Sora AI video generator. "We believe new tools should expand creative freedom, not constrain it or replace the ⁠work of writers, directors, actors, and crews," Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria said. The acquisition is the streaming giant's first since backing out of a high-stakes race to acquire Warner Bros Discovery's studio and streaming assets after Paramount Skydance's rival bid was deemed as superior. Affleck, director and star of Oscar-winning film "Argo", founded InterPositive in 2022 by creating an AI model trained to understand visual logic and editorial consistency, ⁠while maintaining cinematic rules under real-world production challenges such as missing shots or incorrect lighting. "We also built in restraints to protect creative intent, so the tools are designed for responsible exploration while keeping creative decisions in the hands of artists," Affleck said. Affleck will be joining Netflix as a senior advisor.

Ben Affleck Quietly Founded a Filmmaker-Focused AI Tech Company. Netflix Just Bought It.

This isn't an output deal, it's a business deal, with the streaming giant set to acquire an AI-powered filmmaking technology company that Affleck quietly founded a few years ago: InterPositive. Affleck will join Netflix as a senior adviser in the deal, alongside all of InterPositive's staff. The company declined to comment on the terms of the acquisition. "I knew I had a responsibility to my peers and our industry, to protect the power of human creativity and the people behind it. In creating InterPositive, I sought to do just that," Affleck wrote in a Netflix post Thursday. "From the invention of the moving image to the transition to digital, from motion capture to virtual production, technology has evolved alongside the artists who use it. Our shared commitment to continuing this legacy makes joining together a natural next step, in addition to Netflix's decades of experience applying and scaling technology responsibly." InterPositive traces its origin story 2022, when Affleck decided that he wanted to explore the technology space. Working with engineers, researchers and creative executives, he founded the company, which developed proprietary AI-powered tools meant to help filmmakers create their films and shows in a fast, efficient way, while centering the humanity of it all. The company captured a proprietary dataset on a closed soundstage, eventually leading to the company's first model, which Affleck writes is "trained to understand visual logic and editorial consistency, while preserving cinematic rules under real-world production challenges such as missing shots, background replacements or incorrect lighting." In other words, the focus is on filmmaking technique, not the performance of the actors. The tool also allows directors or filmmakers to upload dailies to hone the model for a specific project. Still, anything that touches on AI has become something of a third rail for Hollywood. That may be why Netflix also released a video discussion Thursday, featuring Affleck, Netflix chief product and technology officer Elizabeth Stone, and chief content officer Bela Bajaria discussing what role the tech may play in the creative process, and what InterPositive and Netflix do differently than the AI giants threatening to swallow the rest of the economy. Watch: "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," Bajaria said in a statement. "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. Their work is about giving filmmakers more choices, more control and more protection for their vision. We're excited to build on that legacy together, with creators and their artistic intentions at the center of everything we do." "Our approach to AI has always been focused on meaningfully serving the needs of the creative community and our members," Stone added. "The InterPositive team is joining Netflix because of our shared belief that innovation should empower storytellers, not replace them. InterPositive's impressive technology is purpose-built for filmmakers and showrunners to work with tools that naturally support their creative visions and how they want to bring them to life. We're excited to welcome the InterPositive team to Netflix and continue building towards a future of entertainment where technology plays a part in how stories are made, but people -- and their ideas, craft and judgment -- remain at the core of great storytelling." Affleck, of course, has a long relationship with Netflix. Just last week his production venture Artists Equity inked a streaming first-look deal with the company, and his next directorial feature, Animals, starring Affleck, Kerry Washington and Gillian Anderson, will be released on Netflix later this year. But the InterPositive deal puts Affleck in business with a major Hollywood player in an entirely new way, perhaps even as an evangelist for the technology. The actor and director has been expressing his thoughts on the tech for years, both dismissive of its ability to completely disintermediate all of entertainment, while also being hopeful about how it can enable filmmakers like himself to achieve their goals faster. "What AI is going to do is going to disintermediate the more laborious, less creative and more costly aspects of filmmaking that will allow costs to be brought down, that will lower the barrier to entry, that will allow more voices to be heard, that will make it easier for the people who want to make Good Will Huntings to go out and make it," Affleck told a CNBC conference in 2024. The InterPositive deal is also a rare acquisition for Netflix, which (putting aside the last couple of months), which has historically built internally rather than acquire outside firms. The company's last deal (again, forget Warner Bros.) was Ready Player Me, an avatar creation platform, which it bought in December.