Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Netflix
Given that Ben Affleck is so often making headlines for his personal life, people can forget that he’s actually one of the smartest dudes in Hollywood, with his recent explanation of AI on Joe Rogan’s pocast being the latest reminder of that fact.
While the internet will tell you that Ben Affleck’s IQ is 154, that’s obviously difficult to confirm. What is verifiable, though, is that his ex-wife Jennifer Garner once described Affleck as being “the most brilliant person in any room.” There’s also the fact that he’s navigated decades of career highs and lows, which is not something that an unintelligent person would be able to do.
During a recent apperance on The Joe Rogan Experience to promote his new Netflix film The Rip, Affleck was asked about the incursion of AI on Hollywood, particularly as it concerns script writing.
Ben Affleck goes viral with articulate and brilliant breakdown of artificial intelligence and why it’s not as big of a threat as some people believe
“If you try to get ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to write you something, it’s really s—–. And it’s s—– because, by its nature, it goes to the average. It’s not reliable,” Affleck said.
“It’s a useful tool if you’re a writer and you’re going, ‘What’s the—I’m trying to set something up where somebody sends someone a letter but it’s delayed two days…’ and it can give you some examples of that. I actually don’t think it’s very likely that it’s going to be able to write anything meaningful, and in particular that it’s going to be making movies from whole cloth. Like Tilly Norwood. That’s bulls—. I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he continued.
From there, Affleck made the point that much of the “dread” surrounding AI is a bit of a manufactured as it comes from the fact that the companies creating them are making promises about it potential that they likely won’t deliver on.
“It kind of feels to me like the thing we were talking about earlier where there’s a lot more fear because we have this sense of existential dread—it’s going to wipe everything out. But that actually runs counter, in my view, to what history seems to show, which is that a) adoption is slow. It’s incremental… I think a lot of that rhetoric comes from people who are trying to justify valuations around companies where they go, “We’re going to change everything in two years. There’s going to be no more work.”
“Well, the reason they’re saying that is because they need to ascribe a valuation for investment that can warrant the capex spend they’re going to make on these data centers, with the argument that, ‘Oh, as soon as we do the next model, it’s going to scale up, it’s going to be three times as good.’
Additionally, while AI saw an initial steep spike in progress, it’s since tapered off as it’s now costing more to improve it by a smaller margin.
“Except that actually ChatGPT-5 is about 25 percent better than ChatGPT-4 and costs about four times as much in electricity and data. So that’s plateauing. The early AI — the line went up very steeply and it’s now sort of leveling off. I think it’s because, yes, it’ll get better, but it’s going to be really expensive to get better.”
“And a lot of people were like, ‘F— this, we want ChatGPT-4.’ Because it turned out the vast majority of people who use AI are using it as companion bots to chat with at night and stuff. There’s no work, there’s no productivity, there’s no value to it. I would also argue there’s also not a lot of social value to getting people to focus on an AI friend who’s telling you that you’re great and listening to everything you say and being sycophantic. But that’s sort of a side issue.”
“For this particular purpose, the way I see the technology and what it’s good at and what it’s not—it’s going to be good at filling in all the places that are expensive and burdensome and make it harder to do things. And it’s always going to rely fundamentally on the human artistic aspects of it.”
Honestly, Ben Affleck actually knowing AI and the landscape caught me off guard, but as a writer, makes sense.
Great takes across the board. pic.twitter.com/IcPe0n9302
— Forrest (@ForrestPKnight) January 17, 2026
“Affleck has a better grasp on the limitations and issues in AI than 99% of the VCs that are actively investing in the space,” one viral tweet said.
“Ben Affleck is a smart dude. He nails AI. It’s a mediocrity machine that is kind of cool in some situations but it’s mostly just a massive debt scheme pushed by sociopaths,” was another popular post.
“Ben Affleck is clearly a smart guy. So this does not surprise me. It sounds familiar and on point. Delivered much better than I ever could,” a third added.
You must understand this: he’s the smart one https://t.co/CDy9a5hrIu
— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) January 18, 2026
I love when genius Ben goes viral from time to time https://t.co/LZfceG8kIV
— Jazzy 🔥❤️🔥 (@jaffleck15) January 17, 2026
Truly insane gesticulations here. He is gesturemaxxing to a degree you almost never see. I can’t even pay attention to what he’s saying. https://t.co/EbE5hNE96m
— Amerikanets 📉 (@ripplebrain) January 17, 2026
Affleck’s new film The Rip, which he co-stars in alongside Matt Damon — the pair’s production company Artists Equity also produce the film — is now streaming on Netflix. Written and directed by Joe Carnahan, The Rip also stars Teyana Taylor, Kyle Chandler, Steven Yeun, and Sasha Calle. You can check out the official trailer below.