The Aftermath of the Writers' Strike: Resolving the Conflict with AI

0:00the long-running Writers Guild of America strike, which is stretched to, it essentially was around, I think, five months. It closed off at the end of last month. And this is kind of what happened. Essentially, screenwriters are going to be back at their desks now with, you know, this new inked contract that kind of speaks to the rapidly changing landscape of Hollywood and some of the unique challenges brought by emerging technologies and artificial intelligence. So one of the challenges, of course, is really how AI is impacting the world of screenwriting. So for those on kind of the fringes of the industry, it might be surprising to hear that text-based generative AI tools like ChatGPT, while definitely limited to their creative capabilities, have become really a focal point to a lot of these deliberations.

0:44However, the concern isn't purely about AI capabilities. As comedy writer Adam Conover recently said, he said, quote, I'm not worried about the technology. I'm worried about the companies using the technology that is not, in fact, very good to undermine our working conditions, right? So, of course, he's saying, you know, he's like, I'm not worried that that technology is going to be better than me. I'm just worried that a big corporation is going to use it because it's cheaper. And then, you know, they're going to create poor quality content. That's where he stands on that. So the WGA's new agreement essentially spells out plainly.

1:21It's not that writers are against AI per se. I mean, to be honest, I'm sure many of them will be using it for a lot of the stuff they're doing. They're just against its potential misuse. So the contract prohibits studios from employing AI for writing or rewriting scripts. Further AI generated content won't be acknowledged as source material, which kind of ensures that writers aren't denied credits before, you know, because of AI's hand in the process. So what I think is really interesting here is like on the one hand, they're like, yeah, like no one can use AI to write scripts or to rewrite scripts.

1:57but like how is anyone going to actually know what was written by ai i know like different people are working on the technology different people are trying to tackle that problem but open ai itself as we all know came out with um their ai text classifier technology to essentially you know identify ai written text and they shut the thing down like three months later or four months later because they're like this is too hard this is not going to work maybe they'll come up with something in the future but like as it stands uh it's very difficult to know what's you know written by ai And furthermore, you know, I use AI a lot when I'm trying to like write when I'm trying to write concepts or articles or notes or emails or things.

2:35And it's not like I just like say, hey, write X, Y and Z and it does it. I'm like, write X, Y and Z, include these facts or do it in this order. Make sure you touch on this topic. Here's like a bunch of background. Here's a bunch of context. Here's my previous email thread. Like there's so much stuff I throw in there that, of course, like I could never know. That's like kind of my own content. it's like honestly in a weird way like training it on my own little personal set of my own little personal data set whatever you want to call it right give it a bunch of stuff give it a bunch of stipulations get it to write the thing and then it writes the thing and i'm like okay like half of it's good but like you know modify blah blah blah there's some modifications and i take it i edit it a bit i publish it okay so technically according to this new contract that wouldn't be allowed because ai generated it but a there's no way anyone would be able to tell plus if they tweak it a little bit and fix a few words or a few things and just pass it off as their own.

3:25Like there's no way anyone would know. So on the one hand, I'm like, okay, looks like they tried to get a deal done. On the other hand, I think this is like fairly unenforceable. So I think it's probably more just like, you know, kind of like a token deal where no one can actually like openly admit to using AI, but probably everyone's going to like use AI, at least in part for a lot of their different things. So I don't know, I think it's kind of interesting. In any case, you know further AI generated content is not going to be acknowledged as source material which ensures like we said right like essentially authors are worried that they're not going to get any credit for what they actually do because AI might have helped so no one is going to be sourcing AI material on this one of the more per on like I think a more personal note the contract gives writers the autonomy to use AI tools if they choose to do so but at the same time you know studios can't force writers to use particular AI tools in their work.

4:23So additionally, studios have an obligation to inform writers if they're being handed AI generated content to integrate into their projects. Really, I think, you know, people just want to know what's AI and what isn't. They want that transparency, which, you know, typically I'm all for transparency. But at the same time, it's kind of funny, right? Like, writers are allowed to use AI tools. And of course, like, why not? It's impossible to stop them. So obviously, the writers want to use AI tools. They just don't want to be forced to use a particular AI tool. And they don't want, you know, for essentially them to be like, hey, like help work on this or that or here's some like a scene that we want you to put in here and there.

5:04And they don't want that to be like generated by AI without them knowing, which is kind of interesting. In any case, a standout provision in this WGA contract hints at the broader legal ambiguities surrounding AI, saying, quote, the WGA reserves the right to assert that exploitation of writers materials to train AI is prohibited by the contract or other law. This kind of indicates the contentious space between AI LLMs and copyrighted content, which is a space that's currently under, you know, it's kind of underdefined in state and federal laws. I think there's going to be a lot more regulation and stuff that's kind of coming down the pipe in this space, but that is currently the state.

5:44But at the same time, Hollywood writers aren't the only ones kind of in the spotlight. S-A-G-A-F-T-R-A, which is the union representing actors, also remains on strike and has recently shown a strong intent to push back against the video game industry. So their concerns echo the WGAs, and it's mostly just like surrounding AI. they worry that these could be weaponized to kind of undercut union members especially as technology pushes to scan or even replicate voices for use in media right so like you could go use a tool like 11 labs you give it like a minute of your self-talking and it can clone your voice and they're kind of worried that people have more sophisticated versions i think some that i've seen are you know people are worried that essentially deep fakes will be made of them there was like this recent debacle where someone made like a deep fake of tom cruise and used it to like promote some dental insurance or something.

6:37And he was like, Hey, that's not me, blah, blah, blah. I'm just probably going to sue them. I don't know. But in any case, the whole deepfake thing, I think they're concerned about. So there's kind of like a bit of a telling statement on their website, which kind of, I think underscores this, which says, quote, for many performers, their first job may be their last as companies become increasingly eager to scan our members or train AI with their voices as soon as they show up for work. I think when like the studios kind of pushed back on this like pretty much what they were saying is like we don't want our actors to go there you like do a 3d scan of them get a scan of their voice send them away and then just use their like their likeness forever pretty much and studios were saying no you know we're paying people for a full day's work if they came and then we would just use them like in the context of a specific film if they agree to it or whatever so i don't really know that seems more like a play-by-play contract but i guess it's it's kind of uh something that they're trying to litigate or, you know, the strike is kind of going after.

7:34So I think while it's uncertain how the SAG AFTRA negotiations are going to unfold, the WGA's resolution, I think, provides a bit of a glimpse into how industries might address AI's kind of impact into creative sectors. I think it's definitely a pioneering move for now. It lays down, you know, essentially what people are trying to get out of it in the entertainment industry. It'll be interesting to see what sticks, what doesn't, what they're able to, you know, essentially do and how this unfolds in the future as it pertains to AI and entertainment.