After five months in strikethe Hollywood screenwriters They obtained one of the first agreements to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in their work.
Major Hollywood studios, including Walt Disney Co. and Netflix Inc., agreed that AI “does not replace the work of a screenwriter,” according to a summary of the new three-year labor agreement distributed by the Writers Guild of America. Screenwriters can choose to use the technology, but they cannot be required to do so. Additionally, studies will need to reveal whether any material given to writers was generated by AI.
However, the screenwriters lost on one negotiating point: studios will be free to use existing scripts to train artificial intelligence software. The issue was one of the last points negotiated, as employers insisted they could not accept restrictions that no other industry had accepted, especially since copyright law is still unclear on the matter, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. discussions that asked not to be identified.
The union, which has about 11,500 members nationwide, went on strike on May 2, seeking higher wages and other changes to its work rules. Among those, the union wanted to ensure that AI could not be used to take away their jobs.
The studies, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture & Televisionoriginally offered only annual meetings to discuss advances in technology, the union said in May.
Media companies came back in August with a new proposal that guaranteed that a screenwriter’s salary, screen credits and other rights would not be affected by the use of the AI. For example, if a writer were given a script generated by AI to work from there, you would be paid as if it were a normal job and not a lower priced rewrite.
The new contract must still be approved by guild members, who are expected to conclude their vote on October 9. In the meantime, they will be able to return to work.
The 146-day work stoppage cost the U.S. economy more than $5 billion, half of which fell to California, according to the Milken Institute.
Prominent screenwriters expressed concern that rapidly developing artificial intelligence technology could be used to write scripts, taking work away from humans.
“Plagiarism is a characteristic of the AI process“, the union wrote in March on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. One of the banners read the message: “A robot never made me laugh”.
AI-powered models like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion from Stability AI They are increasingly common in creative companies. The tools can generate ideas or drafts for finished products.
“The question is: How do you balance protecting jobs and people’s livelihoods, while embracing this new technology to streamline work?” asked Francesco Marconi, CEO of AI journalism company AppliedXL.
Current language models AI They excel in areas such as creative writing, he said, but these will always need human supervision.
Marconi describes the tools as “free intellectual energy” that can shorten writing time while removing some of the human elements that viewers might relate to.
The Screen Actors Guild, which embarked on its own strike in July, and AI have also been included in the negotiations. Recently, the technology was used to rejuvenate Harrison Ford for the latest Indiana Jones film and recreate Anthony Bourdain’s voice in a documentary.
Actors are looking to ensure they retain rights to their images, as well as give consent over how data collected from their performances is used. The Animation Guild will begin negotiating its contract in the summer of 2024. A spokesperson said it will be its first opportunity to address the issue.
Source: Gestion
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