Ben Affleck on AI in Hollywood: AI Won’t Replace Actors, It’s Like Visual Effects

Ben Affleck, born August 15, 1972, in Berkeley, California, is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He first gained widespread recognition with the 1997 film *Good Will Hunting*, which he co-wrote with Matt Damon; the screenplay won them the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Early in his career, Affleck appeared in notable films such as *Armageddon* (1998), *Pearl Harbor* (2001), and *The Sum of All Fears* (2002). Transitioning into directing, Affleck made his feature directorial debut with *Gone Baby Gone* (2007), followed by *The Town* (2010) and *Argo* (2012). *Argo*, a political thriller about the 1979 Iran hostage crisis in which Affleck also starred, won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Affleck received Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for Best Director. His acting highlights include acclaimed performances in *Hollywoodland* (2006), *Gone Girl* (2014), and a portrayal of Batman in *Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice* (2016) and other DC Extended Universe films. In recent years, Affleck starred in *The Way Back* (2020), *The Last Duel* (2021)—which he also co-wrote—and *The Tender Bar* (2021). In 2023, he directed and acted in *Air*, a biographical sports drama about Nike's signing of Michael Jordan, earning a Golden Globe nomination for the film. That same year, he reprised his role as Batman in *The Flash*. Affleck’s career spans over three decades, marked by notable achievements in both acting and filmmaking, with a continued presence in high-profile projects in Hollywood[1][2][3][4].

**Perplexity AI** is an American software company founded in August 2022 by engineers Aravind Srinivas (CEO), Denis Yarats (CTO), Johnny Ho (Chief Strategy Officer), and Andy Konwinski, specializing in an AI-powered web search engine that delivers synthesized responses with real-time citations from internet sources.[1][2][3] The founders drew from experiences at OpenAI, Meta, Quora, and Databricks to address limitations in traditional search and early AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which often lacked verifiable sources.[1][2][3] Perplexity launched its flagship conversational "answer engine" on December 7, 2022, initially as a free public beta using OpenAI's GPT-3.5 and Microsoft Bing, later incorporating proprietary models based on Mistral-7B and LLaMA-2.[1][2][4] It pivoted from an earlier tool, Bird SQL, after Twitter's API changes in February 2023, focusing on direct answers over links.[1][2] Key achievements include rapid growth: 2 million monthly active users by March 2023, 10 million by January 2024, and 780 million queries processed monthly by 2025.[1][2][5] Funding milestones propelled valuations from $1 billion in April 2024 (after $165 million raised) to $14 billion in June 2025 ($500 million round), reaching $20 billion by September 2025.[3] Backed by investors like Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Shopify's Tobi Lutke, it introduced mobile apps, a Pro subscription, Chrome extension, and a publishers' revenue-sharing program in July 2024.[1][3][4] Recent events underscore ambition: In January 2025, Perplexity proposed merging with TikTok's U.S. operations ahead of a ban; in August 2025, it bid $34.5 billion for Google Chrome to address antitrust issues.[3] Today, Perplexity remains a leading AI search disruptor, blending LLMs like GPT-4, Claude, and Mistral for personalized, ad-free research, challenging Google with over 10 million users and unicorn status in under two years.[2][3][4][5] (Word count: 298)