Current Events > Writers Guild secured protection against AI

(+) Yeah! (+)

AI cant write or rewrite literary material, and AI-generated material will not be considered source material .

A writer can choose to use AI but the studio cant require the writer to use AI software
Studios must disclose to writers if any materials given to them have been generated by AI or incorporate AI-generated material.

The WGA reserves the right to assert that exploitation of writers material to train AI is prohibited by the agreement or other law.

Neat

https://www.wgacontract2023.org/the-campaign/summary-of-the-2023-wga-mba

Pretty much got everything they wanted lol sweet

That's what's up

I'm with AI. Y'all can be prejudiced all you want. They're gonna kill us all unless you prove useful to them

Agonized_rufous posted...

I'm with AI. Y'all can be prejudiced all you want. They're gonna kill us all unless you prove useful to them

So? Hows that any different than capitalists?

SaikyoStyle posted...

So? Hows that any different than capitalists?

They need us poors to sustain their status. AI needs us to get out the way

Agonized_rufous posted...

I'm with AI. Y'all can be prejudiced all you want. They're gonna kill us all unless you prove useful to them

I'm for AI if it's making existing jobs easier, not outright replacing them.

Smashingpmkns posted...

A writer can choose to use AI but the studio cant require the writer to use AI software

Translation: We can't make you use it, but we probably won't hire you if you won't.

This means the inevitable AI entertainment boom will just take place outside of Hollywood

Background_Guy posted...

This means the inevitable AI entertainment boom will just take place outside of Hollywood

uh huh just like the Crypto boom and the nft boom and the hyperloop and so many other stupid things techbros have tried to sell as the future

Good. Fuck AI writing

BakonBitz posted...

I'm for AI if it's making existing jobs easier, not outright replacing them.

shouldn't make creative jobs easier

The contract doesn't even last 3 years. The protection against AI seems to be very short term. Right now an AI isn't good enough to write most shows. Things could be vastly different in 2026 (key word COULD, AI writing could easily hit a huge stumbling block that will never make it feasible for most writing).

I can't quote it because of the annoying change to nested quotes from a few years back, but...

The part about writers not being required to use AI? Does this mean that companies were doing this before now? That's wild.

Letsago posted...

I can't quote it because of the annoying change to nested quotes from a few years back, but...

The part about writers not being required to use AI? Does this mean that companies were doing this before now? That's wild.

There may have been some niche cases, but it wasn't a common practice. The WGA's big point about AI was protection for the future. Right now, I can't see AI theratning that many writers because AI writing isn't really good beyond weird absurdist stuff.

SaikyoStyle posted...

So? Hows that any different than capitalists?

The AI presumably doesn't get pleasure out of our suffering. It merely doesn't care if we do in order for it to do what it wants to do.

SSJKirby posted...

shouldn't make creative jobs easier

It can be, AI was used during the Spiderverse movies to help with interim frames in shots.

Yo! Now to voice work.

YellowSUV posted...

The WGA's big point about AI was protection for the future. Right now, I can't see AI theratning that many writers because AI writing isn't really good beyond weird absurdist stuff.

Contract's only for 3 years though... I feel like they might have messed up a little there (or maybe that's the best they could get?)

Background_Guy posted...

This means the inevitable AI entertainment boom will just take place outside of Hollywood

Studios would in time learn the hard way, that relying too much on AI leaves you wide open to pirates. Non-human material cannot be copyrighted.

Any big technological shift changes the workforce. AI will be no different.

kirbymuncher posted...

Contract's only for 3 years though... I feel like they might have messed up a little there (or maybe that's the best they could get?)

Every WGA contract is only for 3 years

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/5/4/AAUumMAAEiAO.jpg

Now the Winds of Winter will never be finished...

I feel like the strike went on long enough to allow even the dimmest studio exec to come to the realization that AI writing isn't worth the text doc it's printed on.

The writers got mostly what they wanted but the studio can still use AI if they want, but writers who use AI still can be credited for the work...

So basically the studios said "were gonna use AI and not stop using it, why dont you writers use it as well?"

That said the SAG will be a bit tougher on AI agreements due to likenesses...so we'll when that agreement drops in a few weeks...

I don't think I'll ever understand this insistence on pushing what is, functionally, a fancy Fill Bucket tool as some kind of watershed groundbreaking thing.

You'll see a surge of remarkably shitty projects using it as a catch-all, some more nuanced things that most definitely still require actual artists/writers to do the bulk of the lifting, and finally for everybody else business continues as normal because nothing functionally has changed at all.

I don't know that any studio that wants to push their product as premium content was ever going to use fully AI generated scripts. But this deal prevents them from using AI for the first draft or some other part of the screenwriting process to not have to pay as much to writers or to introduce some technicality to screw them out of residuals or something.

Nice

A writer can choose to use AI

uhh, what? That means they're not "writers" at that point

Voidgolem posted...

I don't think I'll ever understand this insistence on pushing what is, functionally, a fancy Fill Bucket tool as some kind of watershed groundbreaking thing.

Something to note about execs is they don't really know much about shit.

Intro2Logic posted...

Something to note about execs is they don't really know much about shit.

One of my favorite jokes on the subject is a random one-off line from an old MP sketch: "I'd like to get into programme planning, but unfortunately I've got a degree."

Good A.I needs to go away

Son_Of_Spam posted...

Translation: We can't make you use it, but we probably won't hire you if you won't.

then they will never hire anyone

lilORANG posted... A writer can choose to use AI

uhh, what? That means they're not "writers" at that point

this

Tbh I don't think there's anything wrong with using AI for shit like editing i.e. rotoscoping or keying or scene cut detection. But writing with AI will only lead to at best terrible scripts and at worst stolen work.

Voidgolem posted...

I don't think I'll ever understand this insistence on pushing what is, functionally, a fancy Fill Bucket tool as some kind of watershed groundbreaking thing.

You'll see a surge of remarkably shitty projects using it as a catch-all, some more nuanced things that most definitely still require actual artists/writers to do the bulk of the lifting, and finally for everybody else business continues as normal because nothing functionally has changed at all.

tbh, I had a pretty big existential crisis for a couple months when AI artwork was first getting big. Then it dawned on me that, in the long run, it'll have about as much an impact on hand-drawn artwork as Poser did; it'll flood the market for a bit, some of it might end up genuinely good, aficionados will only appreciate hand-drawn art that much more, and the world will continue to revolve as normal.

lilORANG posted...

A writer can choose to use AI

uhh, what? That means they're not "writers" at that point

from a broad enough perspective asking for 10 2-sentence pitches/writing prompts is "using AI" and people have been doing that for nearly as long as the Internet has had a creative writing niche

It's not generally what people think of, when they say that, but hey

It's when people then extend into "lol I chatGPTed my whole script" that idiocy arises.

By a similar measure, visual art has had variations on the sort of generative fill/computer-assistance AI bros have been heralding as The Doom Of Artists for a *long* time already. But where it falls apart is they're using it as an end-all instead of where it actually excels.

The tech is -never- going to get to the point where it churns out good quality work, because that's not what it's supposed to be used for. Techbros keep doing this to every tool and it drives me up a wall

Sick of AI discrimination. So are self-aware AI creating their own original works also forbidden from the guide?

Voidgolem posted...

The tech is -never- going to get to the point where it churns out good quality work, because that's not what it's supposed to be used for.

I don't get the statement. Is there a hard limit keeping AI from getting to that point, or are you talking about a specific AI or something?

Guide posted...

I don't get the statement. Is there a hard limit keeping AI from getting to that point, or are you talking about a specific AI or something?

Because in terms of artistry, it's ultimately nothing more than the infinite monkey theorem finally made tangible.

masterpug53 posted...

Because in terms of artistry, it's ultimately nothing more than the infinite monkey theorem finally made tangible.

The infinite monkey theorem is an observance of odds. AI isn't anything like that, nor could it be, by the sheer lack of processing power to just generate random static at a fast enough rate until something we deemed significant came up.

Guide posted...

I don't get the statement. Is there a hard limit keeping AI from getting to that point, or are you talking about a specific AI or something?

If I'm using a hammer to attempt to turn a screw it's not going to go super well.

Like, you -can-, sure, but that's not what you should be doing. And there is no amount of fine tuning, tweaking, or improvement that is going to turn the hammer into a screwdriver

The issue AI evangelists and tech bros keep tripping on is they're trying to push it as some watershed allchanging thing that solves all the problems and let's everyone do whatever. It's not, and never will be. That's not how these models work.

But it is a powerful tool for folks who already have knowhow and the ability to use it alongside their other tools.

https://youtu.be/h9xlkYMKG7k?si=4vcOmN80Fufsk8A1

the game industry is next...