Ben Affleck on where he drew the line with AI use in his film 'Animals'

Ben Affleck helped make his new thriller Animals with AI, and he says he set strict rules for how it was used.

The 54-year-old actor and director made the admission recently about how his new crime thriller, Animals, was made, after he told Bloomberg earlier this week he used it "for lots of things in that movie," but was hesitant to say what.

Now he is explaining his rules. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter,Affleck said he won't use any AI tool that was trained on copyrighted work or built by someone he looks up to. That is why his team made its own set of training material, so the technology didn't have to take from other people's work.

He also said he has no interest in making films where "you just type things and things come out." He doesn't think anyone would want to watch them, and he wouldn't want to be part of making one.

Instead, he wants AI to be brought into the film industry through companies that work with artists. He said these companies sign deals with the film guilds and won't put someone in a movie without their permission or pay.

If filmmakers turn their backs on AI, he said, other people will take it over, and the film industry will end up weaker.

Affleck said some tech companies make him uncomfortable with how they use people's faces and likenesses. He believes AI works much better when people who actually make films are the ones using it. At Netflix, he said, the tools are just offered as an option. "It's not about making fake people or replacing anybody, ever," he said. He called AI "another interesting post tool" and said that if you can tell it was used, "you've ruined it."