The Rip, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, may be quietly building momentum on Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter, but interviews with the film’s two stars are proving far more incendiary than the early audience scores.
Affleck, who plays Detective Sergeant JD Byrne, was asked for his views on artificial intelligence and its perceived threat to writers and actors’ image rights during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. He did not hold back.
“Try getting ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini to write something. It’s really s**t. It’s s**tty because, by its nature, it goes to the mean, to the average. And it’s not reliable. I can’t even stand to look at what it writes,” Affleck said.
He added that AI could be useful in limited circumstances. “It’s a helpful tool if you’re a writer and you’re thinking, ‘What’s that thing again?’ But I don’t think it’s very likely that it’s going to write anything meaningful, or that it’s going to make movies from whole cloth, like Tilly Norwood. That’s b******t. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Tilly Norwood is an AI-generated character created by Eline Van der Velden, CEO of AI-focused production company Particle6, in partnership with AI talent studio Xicoia. The AI avatar has its own website, a small catalogue of videos and even an Instagram account... along with a listed address in London.
Affleck’s remarks come as companies developing AI tools face mounting pressure to deliver tangible breakthroughs in order to justify investor enthusiasm. Warnings of an AI bubble bursting are never far away, particularly as new AI start-ups seeking funding are being forced to accept high interest rates, reflecting growing scepticism among investors.
“It appears the technology isn’t progressing in the way it was presented,” Affleck said. “It’s going to be a tool, like visual effects. It needs proper legal language around it. You need to protect your name and likeness, and you can do that. You can watermark it. Those laws already exist. I can’t sell your picture for money. I can’t. You can sue me. Period.”
He acknowledged that while AI could be used to recreate someone’s appearance realistically, doing so without permission is already illegal.
Affleck argued that AI’s real value lies in its practical applications on set. “If it helps us, for example, so we don’t have to go to the North Pole — we can shoot the scene here and make it look realistic — that saves money and time. We can focus on the performance instead of freezing out there. That’s useful.”
He compared the current debate to earlier technological shortcuts in cinema, referencing classic films in which actors performed in stationary car mock-ups while scenery was projected behind them, a technique used in films such as Adam’s Rib (1949) starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
“There’s this sense of existential dread... that it’s going to wipe everything out. But that runs counter, in my view, to what history shows,” he said.
Affleck concluded that, while AI may assist filmmakers, it is unlikely to fully replace actors or screenwriters due to its creative limitations.