‘I can’t stand what it writes’: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon share their views on using AI to write movies, but admit it could become a new editing tool

Is AI the next CGI?

19 Jan 2026, 17:05 · TechRadar

Features By Rowan Davies published 19 January 2026

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Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are busy with promoting their new Netflix movie The Rip, and their recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Podcast has everyone talking about AI’s place in film production.

As well as their discussion about the best streaming services allegedly ‘dumbing down’ movies to cater to doomscrollers and background viewers, the long-time collaborators had a few things to say about the direction of AI and whether or not it’s a valuable means of enhancing human creativity for movie making.

Affleck didn’t hold back, claiming that generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT will never be able to replicate the nuance of art produced by humans: “If you try to get ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to write you something, it’s really sh***y, because by its nature it goes to the mean, to the average”, he starts, implying that the standard of writing is no match to a full-fledged story written by a screenwriter.

But his rant doesn’t end there: “I just can’t stand to see what it even writes” he added, doubling down on his views. This is when Matt Damon stepped in.

Screenwriting aside, generative AI tools are also used for facial modification when creating certain expressions, or even adding actors to a scene without having to have them on set. Much like Affleck’s statements on AI-generated writing, Damon slammed it for similar reasons.

Following an anecdote about a scene from Benny Safdie’s latest movie The Smashing Machine, Damon recalls being moved by Dwayne Johnson’s performance in a particular scene due to his raw display of emotion which he drew from a traumatic experience. “You can have AI understand Dwayne’s face and move it in to different (expressions), no f*****g AI can do that”, says Damon.

From a creative perspective, these views are reasonable – nothing that AI produces can compare to a script that’s rich in depth or an acting performance that comes from the heart – but Affleck doesn’t rule generative AI out altogether.

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