Hollywood’s most famous Boston duo isn’t buying the idea that AI can replace real storytelling.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon sat down with Joe Rogan this past week to promote their new Netflix thriller, “The Rip,” but the conversation quickly shifted to the future of creativity.
The long-time friends offered a blunt, surprisingly deep look at how artificial intelligence and streaming algorithms are trying — and often failing — to replace the human touch in movies.
Affleck was particularly vocal about the limitations of generative AI. While Silicon Valley may dream of AI-written blockbusters, Affleck argues that current technology is fundamentally incapable of greatness because it aims for the middle.
ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini do not write content well, “because by its nature it goes to the mean, to the average,” Affleck said on The Joe Rogan Experience.
He didn’t stop there, doubling down on his distaste for the current output: “I just can’t stand to see what it even writes.”
The Netflix formula: Scripting for phone scrollers
Perhaps more surprising than their tech takes was Damon’s revelation about how Netflix asks filmmakers to adapt to our shrinking attention spans. According to Damon, the streaming giant is aware that many viewers are “dual-screening” — scrolling through their phones while a movie plays.
Damon explained that the traditional “three-act” structure is being pressured to change.
“The standard way to make an action movie that we learned was, you usually have three set pieces. One in the first act, one in the second, one in the third,” Damon said. “And now they’re like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay. And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.’”
Affleck, however, pointed to the hit series Adolescence as proof that audiences still crave focus and silence. “But then you look at ‘Adolescence,’ and it didn’t do any of that shit,” Affleck said. “And it’s f**king great… They get in the car, nobody says anything.”
Damon on acting: ‘No AI can do that’
Damon hit home on why AI will never truly replicate a great performance. While acknowledging that AI can already manipulate faces and visuals, he stated that it cannot recreate performances rooted in genuine pain or memory.
Recalling a scene from The Smashing Machine, Damon described being deeply moved by Dwayne Johnson’s performance.
“You can have AI understand Dwayne’s face and move it into different (expressions), no… AI can do that,” Damon told Rogan. He argued that AI lacks the lived human experience required to create art that truly resonates.
AI as a tool, not a creator
Despite their criticism, Affleck did not rule AI out entirely. He said it could become useful in the same way visual effects are used today.
“I think it’s very unlikely that [AI] is going to be able to write anything meaningful, or that it’s going to be making movies from whole cloth,” Affleck said.
Still, he added that AI could help save time and money, for example, by creating realistic locations without the need for expensive travel.
“For example, we don’t have to go to the North Pole; we can shoot the scene here in our parkas, and whatever, but make it appear very realistically as if we’re in the North Pole, it’ll save us a lot of money and time.”
From his point of view, unions and guilds will decide how far those tools can go.
Also read: Hollywood’s pushback on Sora 2 has reignited debates over control, consent, and compensation for AI-generated clips.