Ben Affleck Talks AI and Python in GQ Interview, Recounts Selling InterPositive to Netflix

In early October 2026, Ben Affleck appeared on GQ's “One More Question” program and discussed artificial intelligence, covering topics such as tensors, convolutional neural networks, and edge detection. He also said he writes Python scripts. Clips from the interview were widely shared on X.

Affleck's involvement with AI is not recent. He founded InterPositive, an AI post-production company, in 2022. Netflix announced it was acquiring the company in March 2026, and in July a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed the deal was worth about $587 million in cash. Affleck now serves as a senior adviser. Netflix has said roughly 300 of its titles have used some form of generative AI tool.

During the interview, Affleck recalled visiting OpenAI and said his first look at a video-generation demo left him “almost having a heart attack.” After studying the models with engineers, however, he said their consistency and controllability were not yet sufficient for film production. InterPositive's approach was to build on an open-source video model, partially unfreeze its weights, and continue training it on about eight months of film-grade footage shot in a controlled studio. Crews can then fine-tune the tool with their own dailies for tasks such as filling in shots, replacing backgrounds, and relighting, with the material and results owned by the production.

In Netflix's announcement, Affleck said he wanted to build tools that artists “can use, can control, and can benefit from.” His new film “Animals” used the tooling in post-production. He also said he is not worried about Skynet, but cares about how children use AI at school.