Today, Netflix announced that it has acquired Ben Affleck’s AI company Interpositive, which specializes in tools for film and television production. Under the deal, all 16 engineers and researchers from Interpositive’s current team will move to Netflix. Affleck is also set to join the streamer as a senior advisor.
In A statement regarding the acquisition And on his reasons for founding Interpositive in 2022, Affleck said he was inspired to get into the tech sector after “watching the early rise of AI in production” and seeing the scarcity of many tools. Affleck felt he had a responsibility to “his peers and our industry to protect the power of human creativity and the people behind it.” And he believes Netflix’s history of “responsibly implementing and scaling technology” makes them the ideal partner to take Interpositive to the next level.
Affleck explained, “I wanted to create a workflow that captures what happens on set, that has terminology that matches the language cinematographers and directors already speak, and that includes the kind of consistency and control that they expect.”
Unlike AI models designed to generate visual output based on text, Interpositive’s technology focuses on incorporating daily news (raw footage from progressive presentations) and creating assets that can later be incorporated into the production process. In a video with Netflix chief technology officer Elizabeth Stone and chief content officer Bella Bajaria, Affleck said that using Interpositive’s customized model could enable filmmakers to more effectively mix, color correct and develop special effects for their projects.
Models can be used to manipulate backgrounds, re-frame shots, and edit out visual elements such as stunt wires that should not be visible. Affleck says all of this can be done more quickly and easily using his company’s product. But he also emphasized that Interpositive’s models are meant to help actors focus on their performance without worrying about “all the logistical, difficult, technical things.”
Interpositive’s main selling point is that, because its models are trained specifically on individual projects, they can produce assets that are unique and tailored to a filmmaker’s vision. Models need dailies to produce anything useful, which means they need humans, too. Netflix has not yet announced when and how it will deploy Interpositive’s technology with its internally developed projects. But when the time comes, the streamer is likely counting on an audience that doesn’t know or care that they’re watching more movies and series crafted with AI.
