When Greg Brockman, the president and co-founder of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, was recently extolling the capabilities of artificial intelligence, he turned to 鈥淕ame of Thrones.鈥
Imagine, he said, if you could use AI to rewrite the ending of that not-so-popular finale. Maybe even put yourself into the show.
鈥淭hat is what entertainment will look like,鈥 said Brockman.
Not six months since the release of ChatGPT, generative artificial intelligence is already prompting widespread unease throughout Hollywood. Concern over chatbots writing or rewriting scripts is one of the leading reasons TV and film screenwriters took to picket lines earlier this week.
Though the Writers Guild of America is striking for better pay in an industry where streaming has upended many of the old rules, AI looms as rising anxiety.
鈥淎I is terrifying,鈥 said Danny Strong, the 鈥淒opesick鈥 and 鈥淓mpire鈥 creator. 鈥淣ow, I鈥檝e seen some of ChatGPT鈥檚 writing and as of now I鈥檓 not terrified because Chat is a terrible writer. But who knows? That could change.鈥
AI chatbots, screenwriters say, could potentially be used to spit out a rough first draft with a few simple prompts (鈥渁 heist movie set in Beijing鈥). Writers would then be hired, at a lower pay rate, to punch it up.
Screenplays could also be slyly generated in the style of known writers. What about a comedy in the voice of Nora Ephron? Or a gangster film that sounds like Mario Puzo? You won't get anything close to 鈥淐asablanca鈥 but the barest bones of a bad Liam Neeson thriller isn't out of the question.
The WGA鈥檚 basic agreement defines a writer as a 鈥減erson鈥 and only a human鈥檚 work can be copyrighted. But even though no one鈥檚 about to see a 鈥淏y AI鈥 writers credit at the beginning a movie, there are myriad ways that regenerative AI could be used to craft outlines, fill in scenes and mock up drafts.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not totally against AI,鈥 says Michael Winship, president of the WGA East and a news and documentary writer. 鈥淭here are ways it can be useful. But too many people are using it against us and using it to create mediocrity. They鈥檙e also in violation of copyright. They鈥檙e also plagiarizing.鈥
The guild is seeking more safeguards on how AI can be applied to screenwriting. It says the studios are stonewalling on the issue. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on the behalf of production companies, has offered to annually meet with the guild to go over definitions around the fast-evolving technology.
鈥淚t鈥檚 something that requires a lot more discussion, which we鈥檝e committed to doing,鈥 the AMPTP said in an outline of its position released Thursday.
Experts say the struggle screenwriters are now facing with regenerative AI is just the beginning. The World Economic Forum this week released a report predicting that nearly a quarter of all jobs will be disrupted by AI over the next five years.
鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely a bellwether in the workers' response to the potential impacts of artificial intelligence on their work,鈥 says Sarah Myers West, managing director of the nonprofit AI Now Institute, which has lobbied the government to enact more regulation around AI. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not lost on me that a lot of the most meaningful efforts in tech accountability have been a product of worker-led organizing.鈥
AI has already filtered into nearly every part of moviemaking. It鈥檚 been used to de-age actors, remove swear words from scenes in post-production, supply viewing recommendations on Netflix and posthumously bring back the voices of Anthony Bourdain and Andy Warhol.
The Screen Actors Guild, set to begin its own bargaining with the AMPTP this summer, has said it's closely following the evolving legal landscape around AI.
鈥淗uman creators are the foundation of the creative industries and we must ensure that they are respected and paid for their work,鈥 the actors union said.
The implications for screenwriting are only just being explored. Actors Alan Alda and Mike Farrell recently reconvened to read through a new scene from 鈥淢(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H" written by ChatGPT. The results weren鈥檛 terrible, though they weren鈥檛 so funny, either.
鈥淲hy have a robot write a script and try to interpret human feelings when we already have studio executives who can do that?鈥 deadpanned Alda.
Writers have long been among notoriously exploited talents in Hollywood. The films they write usually don鈥檛 get made. If they do, they鈥檙e often rewritten many times over. Raymond Chandler once wrote 鈥渢he very nicest thing Hollywood can possibly think to say to a writer is that he is too good to be only a writer.鈥
Screenwriters are accustomed to being replaced. Now, they see a new, readily available and inexpensive competitor in AI 鈥 albeit one with a slightly less tenuous grasp of the human condition.
鈥淥bviously, AI can鈥檛 do what writers and humans can do. But I don鈥檛 know that they believe that, necessarily,鈥 says screenwriter Jonterri Gadson (鈥淎 Black Lady Sketchshow鈥). 鈥淭here needs to be a human writer in charge and we鈥檙e not trying to be gig workers, just revising what AI does. We need to tell the stories.鈥
Dramatizing their plight as man vs. machine surely doesn't hurt the WGA's cause in public opinion. The writers are wrestling with the threat of AI just as concern widens over how hurriedly regenerative AI products has been thrust into society.
Geoffrey Hinton, an AI pioneer, recently left Google in order to speak freely about its potential dangers. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things,鈥 Hinton told The New York Times.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 especially scary about it is nobody, including a lot of the people who are involved with creating it, seem to be able to explain exactly what it鈥檚 capable of and how quickly it will be capable of more,鈥 says actor-screenwriter Clark Gregg.
The writers finds themselves in the awkward position of negotiating on a newborn technology with the potential for radical effect. Meanwhile, AI-crafted songs by 鈥淔ake Drake鈥 or 鈥淔ake Eminem鈥 continue to circulate online.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e afraid that if the use of AI to do all this becomes normalized, then it becomes very hard to stop the train,鈥 says James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and information law at Cornell University. 鈥淭he guild is in the position of trying to imagine lots of different possible futures.鈥
In that way, the long work stoppage that many are expecting 鈥 Moody鈥檚 Investor Service forecasts that the strike may last three months or longer 鈥 could offer more time to analyze how regenerative AI might reshape screenwriting.
In the meantime, chanting demonstrators are hoisting signs with messages aimed at a digital foe. Seen on the picket lines: 鈥淐hatGPT doesn't have childhood trauma"; 鈥淚 heard AI refuses to take notes鈥; and 鈥淲rote ChatGPT this.鈥
Associated Press Writer Krysta Fauria in Los Angeles and Robert Bumsted and Aron Ranen in New York contributed to this report.
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What does New Westminster's t蓹m蓹sew虛tx史 Aquatic and Community Centre have in common with a historic 68,000-seat stadium in Beijing, an NFL stadium and the aquatics venue for the Paris Olympics? They've all been named among the world's most beautiful sports venues for 2024.
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Police have arrested a Toronto woman in connection with three recent homicides and investigators say that they believe two of the victims may have been 'randomly targeted.'
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