Hollywood stars and athletes pour money and expertise into AI ventures

A dozen well-known entertainers and athletes are publicly backing artificial-intelligence projects, either by launching companies, investing, or taking board seats.

Hollywood’s AI frontier now includes Ben Affleck, whose InterPositive received $587 million from Netflix to build AI tools that streamline sound mixing, re-lighting and visual effects. Director Darren Aronofsky founded Primordial Soup in 2025 and teamed with Google DeepMind to produce AI-generated short films and an animated series about 1776. James Cameron accepted a board seat at Stability AI, the creator of Stable Diffusion and Stable Audio, citing the convergence of generative AI and CGI.

Robert Downey Jr. heads the Footprint Coalition, which backs carbon-removal technologies and AI-enabled climate solutions. Ashton Kutcher left Sound Ventures to start a new AI-focused VC, while Natasha Lyonne co-founded the AI studio Asteria to direct a film using its tools. Gwyneth Paltrow has invested in several AI startups and runs the VC fund Kinship Ventures.

Martin Scorsese now advises Black Forest Labs and used its AI for storyboarding. Tye Sheridan’s Wonder Dynamics was bought by Autodesk, and Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s Deep Voodoo supplies deep-fake technology for music videos and TV. Musician will.i.am runs FYI.AI and teaches AI at Arizona State University, and Serena Williams launched the Starfire Fund to back AI-enabled companies.