Netflix could have paid $600 million for Ben Affleck’s AI startup

Final week, Netflix introduced the acquisition of InterPositive, an AI firm co-founded by Ben Affleck that helps filmmakers edit footage in post-production.

This deal may very well be price as much as $600 million, according to Bloomberg, doubtlessly rating it among the many streaming large’s largest acquisitions ever. Essentially the most Netflix has ever paid for a single acquisition was roughly $700 million for the Roald Dahl Story Firm. 

Whereas Netflix has not publicly confirmed the main points, sources inform Bloomberg that the precise money cost could also be decrease, with the homeowners of InterPositive eligible for added payouts tied to particular efficiency targets. 

InterPositive makes instruments that assist filmmakers work extra effectively in submit manufacturing — addressing continuity points or enhancing scenes, for instance — however it doesn’t generate new content material or use footage with out permission.

This acquisition matches Netflix’s broader push to combine AI into content material manufacturing. The corporate has already used generative AI in its unique exhibits and flicks, together with to create a building-collapse scene within the Argentine sequence “The Eternaut.”

Rivals are shifting in the identical route. Amazon is constructing in-house AI groups for movie and TV initiatives, whereas Disney has struck a take care of OpenAI.

Not everyone seems to be on board. Staff throughout the movie business have raised issues about potential job losses and whether or not AI corporations are compensating creators pretty for coaching knowledge.