Ben Affleck Warns AI Won't Replace Hollywood Writers, Calls ChatGPT Output Flawed

Can AI really threaten Hollywood? Are the jobs of writers and actors in trouble? AI has moved very quickly from the confines of tech labs into popular culture, causing significant disruption. Nowhere is this more evident than in Hollywood, where generative AI tools such as ChatGPT can draft scenes, suggest dialogue, and even produce entire story outlines in a matter of seconds.

Now, these systems work by analysing large amounts of existing written work and predicting likely word sequences, producing results that, at first sight, can appear coherent and creative. So, writers, actors and other creatives worry that studios might one day lean on these tools not just for assistance but for wholesale content creation.

This controversy went viral when acclaimed Hollywood actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck weighed in, challenging the idea that tools like ChatGPT could ever truly replace human writers in Hollywood's creative ecosystem.

AI Taking Over Hollywood

In the past few years, you must have either seen or at least come across movies and TV shows made entirely with AI.

Some of this innovation has been welcomed, as AI can assist with routine or time-consuming tasks, such as generating preliminary storyboards, drafting dialogue, or helping visual effects teams create realistic scenes more efficiently. AI-driven tools can now generate high-fidelity visuals and assist with technical aspects of filmmaking that previously required large crews and giant budgets.

Also, research into AI's role in creative processes shows that many writers are open to using such systems for specific tasks, especially in early stages of brainstorming or structural development. Additionally, AI is used for camera tracking, shot matching, background generation, and concept art, all of which help reduce production time and costs.

However, despite these benefits, the prospect of full AI adoption has worried many professionals. Screenwriters and actors have banded together in advocacy and negotiations to protect their roles against what they describe as an existential threat. These actions show a huge worry that studios could use generative AI to reduce labour costs and ultimately diminish the human contributions that define compelling storytelling and lead to job loss.

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Ben Affleck's Take on AI in Hollywood

Now, when asked about the fear that AI could replace Hollywood writers, Ben Affleck gave a candid, nuanced answer that set the tone for this debate. Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience, the American actor and director dismissed the notion that current AI systems can write meaningful, original scripts on their own. Affleck described the output of tools such as ChatGPT as 'really shitty,' arguing,

'What I see is, for example, if you try to get ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini to write you something, it's really shitty,' Affleck added. 'And it's shitty because by its nature it goes to the mean, to the average, and it's not reliable. I just can't stand to see what it writes now.'

Moreover, Affleck also said that while AI technology is improving, it fundamentally lacks the ability to produce the kind of story depth, emotional tones and character development that define successful Hollywood scripts. He pointed out that generative language models work by combining patterns from existing material and that this method cannot replace human imagination or artistic judgment. In his view, AI might be useful as a creative assistant, helping writers to brainstorm ideas and overcome blocks, but it cannot originate awesome stories on its own.

Furthermore, the actor expanded on this argument by talking about the hype around AI. He said that much of the fear about AI replacing creative professionals is driven by Silicon Valley theories made to justify large investments and inflated valuations in AI companies. Affleck said,

'I think a lot of that rhetoric comes from people who are trying to justify valuations around companies, where they go, "We're gonna change everything in two years, there's gonna be no more work." The reason they're saying that is because they need to ascribe evaluation for investment that can warrant the CapEx spend they're gonna make on these data centers with the argument that, "As soon as we do the next model, it's gonna scale up. It can be three times as good."'

He even gave a specific example,

'Except that actually ChatGPT-5 is about 25% better than ChatGPT-4 and costs about four times as much in the way of electricity and data. So that says that's plateauing. The early AI, the line went up very steeply, and it's now sort of leveling off. It's gonna get better, but it's gonna be really expensive to get better.' He added, 'A lot of people were like, 'F*ck this, we want GPT-4,' because it turned out the vast majority of people who use AI are using it as companion bots to chat with at night. And so there's no work, there's no productivity, there's no value to it. I would argue there's also not a lot of social value to getting people to focus on an AI friend who's telling you that you're great and listening to everything you say and being sycophantic.'

With AI increasingly invading creative spaces, Affleck's response is a much-needed respite for many.