'Plagiarism machines': Thousands of Hollywood writers go on strike over use of AI in scriptwriting

Hollywood writers have long written science fiction scripts about machines taking over the world, but now they find themselves fighting to keep robots from taking their jobs. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is pushing for limitations on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in writing film and television scripts. However, Hollywood studios, who are battling to make streaming services profitable and dealing with shrinking ad revenues, have rejected this idea, stating that they would only be open to discussing new technologies once a year.

The disagreement over AI is among several issues that prompted Hollywood's film and TV writers to commence a strike on Monday, which is the first work stoppage in 15 years.

While improving compensation in the streaming era is the primary focus of WGA's negotiating points, the debate over AI's role in the creative process will determine the future of entertainment for decades to come. According to John August, a screenwriter who is also a member of the WGA negotiating committee, there are two key concerns that writers have in relation to AI. Firstly, they don't want their material feeding AI, and secondly, they don't want to be fixing sloppy first drafts created by AI.

The focal point of the debate is a versatile and fast-evolving technology that has rapidly permeated the entertainment industry worldwide. In Hollywood, AI has already proven useful in smoothing out wrinkles from ageing performers' faces, removing excessive profanity from an actor's dialogue, and assisting in creating animated short films through OpenAI's Dall-E, which produces lifelike images. Furthermore, some writers have also started exploring the use of AI to craft scripts.

"The problem here seems to be that we thought that creativity, per se, was the last bastion, the line in the sand, that would stop machines from replacing someone's job," said Mike Seymour, co-founder of Motus Lab at the University of Sydney. He has a background in visual effects and artificial intelligence and has consulted with several studios. "I would argue that that's just some kind of arbitrary notion that people had that caught the popular imagination."

Seymour believes that AI can help writers overcome the "blank piece of paper phenomenon" and is good at producing straightforward, blunt dialogue. However, it lacks nuance, and he isn't claiming that AI will ever produce something like "Citizen Kane."

Writers fear that they will be sidelined or shortchanged by AI. For example, instead of being hired to write a first draft, studios may hire them to do a second draft, which pays less. The Writers Guild of America put forth a proposal stating that any material created by an AI system, such as ChatGPT, should not be regarded as "literary material" or "source material," which are already defined terms in their existing contract. In essence, this implies that if a studio executive provides a writer with a script generated by an AI for revisions, the writer cannot be remunerated at a lower rate for the rewrite or polish work.

The union is additionally contending that current scripts should not be employed for the purpose of training artificial intelligence, as it could lead to intellectual property theft. The WGA's lead negotiator, Ellen Stutzman, noted that some of their members refer to AI as "plagiarism machines."

"We have made a reasonable proposal that the company should keep AI out of the business of writing television and movies and not try to replace writers," she said.

(With Agency inputs)

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