The union representing Hollywood actors and writers went on strike last year to ensure that AI systems took over their jobs. But Ben Affleck says actors and screenwriters don't need to worry about AI because it currently can't do either job and probably never will.
“Movies are going to be one of the last things to be replaced by AI, even if everything is replaced,” Affleck said in an on-stage interview with CNBC last week. “AI can write great copycat poetry that sounds Elizabethan. It can't write Shakespeare.”
Affleck, who currently runs a movie studio with Matt Damon, seems to have a pretty good grasp of how AI works, and at one point in the interview provided a bare-bones definition of transformer architecture. He's surprisingly optimistic about the impact AI will have on the film industry, saying it may actually create more jobs for actors and screenwriters. That said, Affleck points out that the visual effects business could be in trouble.