Quoting Ben Affleck
- ID
- 32987
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 08 Oct 2026, 7:14 AM
- Fetched
- 08 Oct 2026, 7:22 AM
- Provider
- Simon Willison
- Category
- developer-ai
- Original URL
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/7/ben-affleck/
- Source URL
- https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/
Summary
- Score
- 3.0
- Created
- 08 Oct 2026, 7:23 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersai_ml_learnersvibe_coders
What happened
Simon Willison's weblog republishes a quote from Ben Affleck describing how machine learning has long been part of visual effects work: he says he can write 'pretty shitty Python scripts' and explains using convolutional neural networks on tensors — the numeric encoding of a frame's pixels including batch number, frame number, and RGB values — for edge detection and feature extraction so green-screen elements can be replaced. He frames CNNs as precursors to transformers, which he describes as 'just much more computation simultaneously.'
Why it matters
There is no product, version, price, or policy change here — it's a quote post, so nothing forces a builder to change anything. Its only practical use is as a plain-language analogy: the tensor-to-edge-detection-to-green-screen-replacement chain is a concrete way to explain CNN feature extraction to someone who has only ever used transformers, and the 'precursors to transformers' framing is a reminder that the VFX pipeline was running ML in production well before the current LLM wave.
Discussion angle
Use the green-screen example as a teaching device: ask who in the room can explain why a CNN's edge detection is different from a transformer's attention, and whether that older tensor-based workflow still shapes how anyone here preprocesses image or video data today.