How AI Took Center Stage In The Hollywood Writers' Strike

After failing to reach a contract resolution with the studio association, more than 11,000 film and television writers remain on strike. Of the many topics under consideration in this year's Writers Guild of America contract discussions, one nascent technology has fueled dissent among the negotiators: artificial intelligence.

Since the last writers' strike in 2007, widespread consumer adoption of video streaming has exemplified how novel technologies can upheave the entertainment industry. Now, however, the leaders in the streaming space are dealing with the ballooning costs of high-output, high-quality content.

"Today, the only one we know of that is cashflow positive is Netflix," said Dan Rayburn, a streaming media analyst. "They've estimated they'll be about $3.5 billion of free cash flow this year. Every other company out there, if you think about it, is losing money. Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, losing billions and billions and billions of dollars a year."

As streaming companies scramble to nourish their bottom line, content is being removed from platforms, cutting off creators from being compensated.

Watch the video above for more on how AI is fueling the WGA's fight for a fair contract.

Chapters:
00:00 — Introduction
00:53 — The decision to strike
02:02 — Addressing disruption
06:51 — Creating the content of tomorrow
09:05 — What's next?

Produced and edited by: Kate Sammer
Graphics by: Andrea Schmitz
Supervising Producer: Jeff Morganteen

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[straighttalk]

They were worried when YouTube became popular because they thought everyone would be making their own content and they were right also 95% of my viewing time is spent on YouTube.

[moresalad]

"Losing billions and billions of dollars a year" Probably because most of it is trash. Ever think about that???

[dragonskunkstudio]

The strike comes at the worst possible moment where you wish they went on strike before all those crappily written shows aired.

[albertPI]

AI was designed as a tool to make things more productive, not easier. And that's why the biggest companies shouldn't rely so much on it and then start to kick out too many good employers. The AI rising is giving us a lesson: we need to be creative again.

[IncomeBoost]

Ironically, the act of going on strikes in itself may push studios to rely more on AI. If the technology keeps improving, I don’t see how it won’t affect their jobs. But if it’s any consolation, most jobs will be impacted too.

[chad]

They’ll have to go on strike for months or even longer. There’s so many shows I still need to catch up on and that I need to start watching. So many new series are dropped, and cancelled, before I even know it lol

[Dave]

"The unskilled and the untalented would be able to pretend to be skilled and talented" Welcome to the internet, or the music industry, or any other form of entertainment these days where this is happening for quite some time already.

[rinowx]

This is honestly just a great time for all American workers to fight back against greed and the class war

[maakuw]

SO sad... I've lived through a LOT of jobs being replaced, and ppl from the generation that created that thing saying "no... that'll never happen" and then it does. As a software engineer and a person who's gone to school 6yrs for art, NEITHER of my long honed skills are useful now. AI is doing them already. Do you REALLY think it can't Creative Direct? Order coffee? Move documents around the office? Keep thinking it's a joke.. just don't complain when you're the gas-station attendant/usher/checkout person/stocker that has been replaced this time.

[mhill]

4:42 I never felt the writer strike in 2007/2008. I was 22, and I had no idea it happened

[ktktktktktktkt]

I'm on the side of the strikers but 8:49 is a horrible way to phrase it... technology should be used as a resource. It's part of your job to use what is available to you to produce the best you can. Also, I don't think you have the right to say who is and who isn't talented. That's for the audience to decide. I find the things she is saying to be very distasteful and thoughtless.

[NikoKun]

AI exists thanks to the data they've been collecting from all of us over the years. Considering it's potential implications to jobs, and on most people's ability to compete for an income.. It owes us ALL an "AI Dividend"!

[GoatedAtNFS]

whoever invented artificial intelligence

you created a monster.

because replication of movies isn’t the only things they can do

[shakeemwinn]

In the end. It will come down to who can tell the best story. Just as it always has.

[ninjanerdstudent]

As a writer, I write my own articles, but when doing section edits, I depend heavily on AI. One of my articles is set to publish next week and focuses on the ethics of using AI, specifically ChatGPT.

[nitinbhakta]

Yes, it's true. AI has become a major disruptive force in every conceivable industry. No doubt many businesses, large and small, use AI to generate content. However, one major factor that AI can not compete with humans is emotions. One of the goals of writers is to write content that moves the audience with powerful emotions.

[millertime]

For the companies, AI can’t be much more than a negotiating tool at this point. Good creative writing requires so much nuance that AI can’t provide. I guess unless you’re talking Hallmark channel movies 😂

[miserylitmedia]

While I'm not sure I fully agree with the union rep's position on "unskilled" filmmakers "pretending to be skilled" using AI (which, on its face, sounds like the kind of insider elitism that makes them look cringey), I definitely agree that humans should be paying more attention to the stories they are empowered to tell. Using AI to help keep track of things and come up with prompts can be useful for some creative processes, but ceding storytelling to machines that can't even tell jokes gives us wasted efforts like "Centaurworld." Humans will still be needed to edit and refine ideas - as well as weed out extraneous stuff that makes ZERO sense, or stuff that is proprietary and not legally usable. No wonder Black Mirror decided to royally dunk on Netflix (excuse me, "Streamberry") this most recent season!

Also, production companies trying to cut costs by removing royalty-eligible content is just scummy AF, especially to the creatives who helped make them. This kind of BS is what makes the "Hollywood machine" look like a terrible workplace, and an untrustworthy source for "cultural advancement."

[williambrennan]

Just throwing this out there as an average Joe media consumer. I honestly didn't even know they were on strike until this video. I remember the strike back in around 2008 cuz of my favorite shows I had to wait and there weren't that many episodes and a few episodes sucked but I didn't even know they were striking now.. I'm literally just watching entire seasons of shows on streaming. If they quit making content completely right now I doubt at 45 years old I live long enough to see all of it.... Just too much is out there for a strike really to matter much. Now if they keep striking and popular shows like South Park Simpsons Rick and Morty the mandalorian stuff like that gets pushed back People will start to notice but day-to-day no you're going to have to be on strike for a long time for somebody to actually notice some content missing....

[nah]

8:58 “The unskilled and untalented can pretend to be talented” so nepo babys?? Like Haley Baldwin and Kelly Osborne 🤔😭 She proved her own point on how ai will democractize every industry, so pretentious.