One of the biggest news rocking the writing community is that writers from Hollywood and showbiz are going on strike following issues they’ve had to deal with regarding unfair compensation and the emergence of AI. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is asking for their calls and demands to be met.
What is the Hollywood writers’ strike all about?
The strike led by the WGA officially began on May 2, 2023. Although it might have surprised many, there have been negotiations between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) for months. Unfortunately, these negotiations didn’t fall through, and the two couldn’t reach a deal.
- Because of that, the WGA had no choice but to officially go on strike, impacting production on many TV shows and upcoming films.
- This marks the first time in 15 years that a writers’ strike is happening. In 2007, the writers’ strike in Hollywood cost the industry over $2 billion USD.
- It also lasted for 100 days before both sides came to terms.
What are the writers asking for?
The emergence of the streaming era has impacted writers and their wages. According to them, they are not being paid fairly and are always fearing that they will lose their jobs because, at any moment, the shows they are working on may get canceled. In other words, writers feel they have less job security now.
What they want is for changes that will benefit them in the long run:
- Streaming platforms should give them more residuals
- Writers are entitled to better healthcare benefits, especially in this day and age
- Workplaces should aim for more diversity and inclusion
- Increased minimum pay rates for all writers, regardless of whether they work in TV or film
- Completely abolishing “paper teams” used by production companies to cut costs and reduce writers’ pay
- Coming up with better initiatives to protect writers’ intellectual property and creative rights
The real reason replacing writers with AI would never work in the long term is that, left to its own devices, the executive class lacks even the creative drive to make coherent demands of machines. Remember that this how they think human brains work. pic.twitter.com/ACqry5M0JK
— Drac Bloodryk (@BudrykZack) May 4, 2023
- Completely avoiding the use of AI and having writers feed their work into it so that future material can be AI-generated instead
Will AI replace humans when it comes to writing?
It’s completely understandable where the writers are coming from regarding AI and how it might interfere with their work. WGA members have voiced their concerns and made it clear where they stand: there is no room for AI in the writing industry. They have already raised this concern from the start, noticing that AI programs like ChatGPT are being trained to write instead of actual humans.
If you’re worried about the quality of your movies and TV suffering due to the writers strike, that’s the whole point. Studios need to see just how bad things get without the workforce they clearly take for granted. They need to discover firsthand that AI is not a replacement.
— Myles Hughes (@MylesOnFilm) May 2, 2023
Studios believe this is the best way for them to cut costs. By relying on AI instead of human writers, they could significantly reduce the cost of having someone write a script. To offer up a resolution so that AI doesn’t take writers’ jobs, they have proposed in their bargaining contract the following points:
- AI will not be given the power and authority to write or rewrite any literary material
The immediate fear of AI isn’t that us writers will have our work replaced by artificially generated content. It’s that we will be underpaid to rewrite that trash into something we could have done better from the start. This is what the WGA is opposing and the studios want.
— C. Robert Cargill (@Massawyrm) May 2, 2023
- Studios will not turn to AI and have it churn out ideas to be used as source material
- Human writers will not feed their own works to AI so that the machine can be trained to write the way humans write
Unfortunately, these were all rejected by the AMPTP. The trade association has responded by saying they would hold annual meetings. In these meetings, they would then talk about the advancements in technology.
i don’t think y’all understand. when you binge that favorite show of yours from the early 2000s you can TELL the exact. season. which the writers’ strike happened. friday night lights, heroes, lost, prison break. YOU CAN SEE and FEEL that dip in quality. this is going to get bad https://t.co/DV6lfMKaqm
— victøria h 🐝🌪️ (@filmforvictoria) May 2, 2023
In short, they are still set on including AI in scriptwriting. Naturally, this enraged many writers who are on strike right now. They feel as though their craft and skill in writing have been disrespected by the rejection of their demands when it comes to AI.
Studios should still choose humans over AI to write their scripts
If studios want quality material for their script, they shouldn’t even consider using AI for that. Even though AI is powerful and can perform many tasks that humans can, it still has limitations. Compared to humans, AI still does not have the capacity to do something truly original or from scratch.
With humans as your writers, you get what AI cannot give: imagination, emotion, creativity, and passion. Hopefully, studios will heed the calls and demands of their writers, and the strike will end with both sides coming to a mutually beneficial agreement.
What do you think about the ongoing writers’ strike in Hollywood and showbiz? Do you think AI will replace humans anytime soon? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. For more content, stay with us, here at Spiel Times.
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