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In the scenario ripped from the episode of The Twilight Zoneor a new Netflix series Mrs. DavisHollywood writers say they are fighting to keep their work in human hands, fearing that artificial intelligence could eventually take over their jobs.
Thousands of television and film writers picketed in Los Angeles and New York this week, demanding better pay, higher streaming residuals, job security and restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence or AI in creative projects.
The Writers Guild of America said Monday it wants studios and networks to stop using AI to write or rewrite literary material — or train AI to use original material. In essence, he wanted to ensure that literary works remained in human hands.
On the picket line this week, comedian, director, actor and writer Rebecca Addelman — a Canadian living in Los Angeles — reflected the mood.
“We all feel a little bit scared,” Addelman told the CBC.
Writers are angry at the machine
“New literary ideas put into manuscript form must be written by humans and cannot be rewritten by machines,” Addelman said.
About 11,000 WGA members went on strike Tuesday, halting television production and risking season delays as the entertainment industry faces seismic structural changes, from the arrival of Netflix, to live streaming and the adaptation of digital artificial intelligence tools.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents major Hollywood studios, said in a statement on Thursday that AI “raises difficult, creative and legal questions for everyone.” Material produced by AI cannot be copyrighted or credited for writing under current contracts, according to the statement.
AMPTP says the current WGA contract defines writers as “persons.”
Some digital developers and producers say AI is best used for streamlining visual effects — managing tedious detail work — not to replace major creative projects.
But the writer fears that the production could be stripped down to one writer and the computer.
“It’s an existential crisis for writers,” Jamey Perry, a TV actor and vice chairman of the WGA’s Committee on Writers with Disabilities, told Reuters.
On Thursday, Drew Barrymore pulled out of the upcoming MTV Movie & TV Awards in solidarity with the stunning writer, who said she would push back against powerful artificial intelligence tools. These chat bots can be used to digest vast amounts of online data and produce everything from essays to song lyrics — and maybe Academy Award-winning screenplays.
Will AI take over?
While this may sound like a sci-fi plot twist – where writers write from scripts by robots – digital developers warn that this technology has the potential to replace workers in many creative industries.
In 2016, the short sci-fi film, Sunspringwritten by AI, according to director Oscar Sharp, who created the work for the film festival.
Actor Patricia Summersett, based in Montreal and Los Angeles, is the voice of Princess Zelda on Nintendo The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild video games. He is currently writing a screenplay.
“I think that writers have the hardest job. It’s often overlooked because the process is long, slow, rigid, meticulous,” he said. Writing is “the foundation for any story house,” he added, arguing that humans should limit their use of technology to create stories “so we don’t lose our humanity.”
AI tools are used in visual effects, script screening
Professor of neuroscience and business at Columbia University in New York, Moran Cerf, talks with Elon Musk about the future of AI. He said Hollywood writers and others should be nervous.
“I’m concerned, like anyone who has a business that involves writing or texting,” he said. “Hollywood has used AI technology, lightly,” he said, but it has the potential to expand.
He describes how the AI has combed through the screenplays submitted and created many of the special effects we watch.
Cerf said thousands of scripts are sent to studios, so they feed the raw material into the computer for the first review. Only if the original material meets certain criteria – the program looks like an active voice, a strong protagonist and a certain story arc – then it can be read by humans. He said the script writer even tried to fill this algorithm.
For Cerf, the Hollywood writers strike was actually a bellwether moment; it is awakening people to some of the potential threats of AI.
“Hollywood is the canary in the coal mine,” he said. “AI will replace the jobs of assembly line workers but it will also replace the jobs of creative agents who have to come up with new ads for the Super Bowl.”
The technological battle is progressing with difficulty
But Cerf says AI isn’t all doom and gloom.
“This weekend. I’m going to spend time with Elon Musk and someone who kind of wrote an article saying we should ban AI or freeze it or both. And I take a different attitude,” he said.
“I can give you in history many examples of technology that came and people were very worried that their lives would be wasted… When machines started to do agriculture, all the farmers thought: ‘This is it. We are useless. .'”
So why not let digital intelligence take over screenwriting in the Hollywood dream factory?
Ask Canadian AI pioneer Geoffery Hinton who just quit his job at Google to speak candidly about the need to control the technology.
Hinton spent half a century working to try to make computers learn and now believes that the digital intelligence developed in the form of chat bots – like Chat GPT – GPT-4 and Google PaLM – is on the threshold of human intelligence, and human potential in the worst case scenario.
Hinton told the CBC’s Nil Köksal As it happens: “I know of no case in which the more intelligent have been controlled more than the less intelligent.”
Prominent AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has resigned from Google to speak more freely about the potential dangers of sophisticated artificial intelligence. He is the latest tech figure to call for a slowdown in AI research, warning AI could surpass human intelligence.
For now, however, Hinton says digital intelligence has its limits, and there’s time to build fences.
The pixie dust factor
In addition, entertainment industry leaders are not convinced that AI will be able to write hits.
“In a business that’s shrouded in pixie dust and magic and new ideas, it’s very difficult for AI to perform,” said Noah Segal, co-president of Elevation Pictures in Toronto.
Segal sees the advancement of AI as a useful production tool, but one that doesn’t resonate with a no-nonsense audience.
“Consumers see what they like up to a certain point and then say: ‘I’ve seen enough.’ He just turned on whatever he liked 15 minutes ago,” Segal said.
Bob Woolsey, head of film production at the Vancouver Film School, is watching the industry to guide Canada’s next generation of directors and filmmakers.
Woolsey said that AI has been used extensively, especially in the non-integrated visual effects industry, for video games and motion capture. He was “more interested than surprised” and encouraged students to experiment with powerful new digital tools that aid film production, as long as they don’t plagiarize.
“I know all the worst-case scenarios from watching science fiction movies,” Woolsey said. “I think AI is a tool and will be used as a tool.”
“It’s not going to change writers,” he said. “But I think there’s a lot of stuff being paid for writers today that can be threatening.”
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