Hollywood Is Already Using AI. The Question Is Who Admits It.

Key points

• Netflix paid $587 million for Ben Affleck's AI startup to bring AI tools into post-production filmmaking.
• Netflix disclosed in spring 2025 that 300 of its shows already use generative AI, the technology that creates new content from existing data.
• A creator on an Amazon AI-assisted animation project stepped down after intense public backlash.
• The Writers Guild of America permits members to use AI tools such as ChatGPT, provided a credited human writer remains on every script.
• Animation workers face the most immediate pressure, because AI can already complete scenes and generate storyboards without human artists.

AI is everywhere in Hollywood. The industry just cannot agree on whether to say so out loud.

That is the central finding of a wide-ranging conversation published by Wired AI between editor Katie Drummond and Matt Belloni, a founding partner at the media newsletter Puck and a decades-long Hollywood reporter. Belloni hosts the podcast The Town and writes What I'm Hearing, both of which have tracked AI's growing footprint across the entertainment business.

What is Hollywood actually doing with AI?

Two distinct uses are running side by side. Administrative AI, meaning software that improves search and internal workflows, is nearly universal. The more contested use is generative AI, software that produces new video or text on demand.

Belloni says he knows of a prominent showrunner who instructed her writing team to use ChatGPT to help generate joke ideas and scene descriptions during the creative process. That's legal under Writers Guild rules. The guild allows AI assistance as long as a credited human writer is attached to every script and no jobs are cut as a result.

On the production side, Netflix told investors this spring that 300 of its shows now use generative AI in some form. That's a striking number, given how loudly parts of the industry have pushed back against the technology.

What did Netflix actually buy from Ben Affleck?

Netflix paid $587 million for Affleck's AI company. Belloni says he barely knew the company existed until the sale was announced. The tool takes footage a director has already shot and makes it available for AI-assisted editing, meaning a producer can extend the edge of a scene, add a camera angle that was never filmed, or avoid an expensive reshoot over a small missing shot.

Belloni frames it as a filmmaker's utility tool rather than a people-replacement machine. Affleck's credibility as an Oscar-winning director, Belloni argues, gave Netflix cover to move into AI territory that might have drawn heavier criticism from other hands. We first reported on this acquisition on 4 August 2026.

Where is the backlash real?

Real enough to end careers, at least temporarily. When Amazon held a media event presenting an AI-assisted animation studio run by executive Albert Chang, one of the attached creators faced such intense online criticism that they stepped down from the project. Belloni calls that a concrete example of "AI shaming" carrying genuine professional consequences.

Animation is the area Belloni expects to see the most disruption first. AI can already generate storyboards, the rough sequential drawings used to plan a scene, and complete visual sequences without a human artist. Fully AI-generated feature films exist, but Belloni is blunt: the ones he has seen are not good yet.

For ordinary viewers, the near-term effect is subtle: an extra camera angle here, a quietly extended background there. The bigger shifts, Belloni suggests, are still coming. Those shifts may soon carry a legal disclosure requirement too: EU rules that took effect on 2 August 2026 now require companies operating in Europe to tell viewers when they are watching AI-generated content.

What does this mean for people who work in the industry?

The gap between public statements and private practice is wide. Writers who publicly oppose AI may be quietly using it to speed up research or scene-setting. Studios announcing AI projects face immediate reputational risk. Workers in animation face the most immediate pressure on their roles.

Common questions

Is it against the rules for a screenwriter to use ChatGPT?

Not under current Writers Guild rules. The guild allows AI tools as long as a credited human writer remains on every script and the technology is not used to cut writing jobs.

Will AI replace actors and directors?

Not soon, according to Belloni. Current AI film output is visibly artificial, and the tools generating the most adoption are editing aids rather than creative replacements. The bigger near-term risk sits with animation artists and visual-effects workers.