Writers Wright
Seeing the WGA writers' strike going on in Hollywood, I am glad they're sticking up for themselves against the studios, even though I fear the AI train is already rolling, and studios will be leaning heavily on AI in the future.
Writers have always been at a disadvantage in Hollywood, owing to the origins of the film industry in silent film -- the others involved with moviemaking had a head start on writers, who didn't become somewhat more important until the talkies.
Jump ahead many decades, and now we're seeing the blistering advent of AI. I fear the future of those kinds of writers will be like a human employee minding a robot factory -- they will likely be there to just make sure the AI doesn't botch the script it conjured up.
Given the ad hoc nature of screenwriting -- in that it's dependent on writers being nimble enough to bob and weave around the demands of the studio, producers, director, etc., the temptation for the studios will be to rely on AI to make those quick updates and revisions to scripts. Plug-and-play.
So, while I definitely support the WGA writers, I fear that this'll be their last strike, win or lose. Given how much AI has commandeered the creative process already (at least in the popular and/or studio imagination), it'll be impossible to imagine another writers' strike in a decade.
I fear that the WGA will be trying to make arrangements for its membership in the here and now, with a grim understanding that in a decade, the demands will be irrelevant in the future, because studios (and AI) will be better able to navigate writing and creation.
Just look how quickly people went from sucking their teeth about AI-generated art to basically shrugging their shoulders. Things are moving very quickly, and AI is not simply going to disappear.
Especially when there are industries that are highly interested in making use of it. The comparison I could make is between a cobbler and a robotic shoe factory -- who wins? The cobbler doesn't stand a chance. There might be some loyal customers, but in volume, the robotic shoe factory wins. It's the John Henry story all over again, just moving into other industries.
AI's not going away. The WGA is trying to right by its writers, and that's laudable, but I fear it's a rearguard move on their part, because the future's going to be with AI, at least on those big-capital enterprises. Writers in that industry will likely become script doctors, while the AI churns out script after script.
Hollywood writers were one of those rare types of writers who could actually make decent money, at least historically, relative to most other types of writers. But the big money involved in moviemaking is precisely what makes the AI incentive all the more central to how the studios roll. The captivity of the studios to Wall Street ensures that the emphasis will be on reliable moneymaking, versus being dependent on something unpredictably human.
And just watch how AI CGI continues to evolve (and improve) -- AI's coming for the actors, next. Maybe some big names will lease out their looks to AI companies to create digital AI proxies of themselves for the screen. Or maybe studios will simply just do it. For them, AI allows for ready ownership of creative assets, so that's a good thing from their POV -- it just hoses the human creators.
We're racing headlong into an AI universe where most of us will simply be irrelevant. Ironically, I saw some articles where they were saying that AI could readily replace CEOs, doing what they do at a fraction of the price. It'll be curious how hard those wealthy CEOs fight their own extinction in the face of the same AI they used to wipe out writers, actors, and artists.
Writers have always been at a disadvantage in Hollywood, owing to the origins of the film industry in silent film -- the others involved with moviemaking had a head start on writers, who didn't become somewhat more important until the talkies.
Jump ahead many decades, and now we're seeing the blistering advent of AI. I fear the future of those kinds of writers will be like a human employee minding a robot factory -- they will likely be there to just make sure the AI doesn't botch the script it conjured up.
Given the ad hoc nature of screenwriting -- in that it's dependent on writers being nimble enough to bob and weave around the demands of the studio, producers, director, etc., the temptation for the studios will be to rely on AI to make those quick updates and revisions to scripts. Plug-and-play.
So, while I definitely support the WGA writers, I fear that this'll be their last strike, win or lose. Given how much AI has commandeered the creative process already (at least in the popular and/or studio imagination), it'll be impossible to imagine another writers' strike in a decade.
I fear that the WGA will be trying to make arrangements for its membership in the here and now, with a grim understanding that in a decade, the demands will be irrelevant in the future, because studios (and AI) will be better able to navigate writing and creation.
Just look how quickly people went from sucking their teeth about AI-generated art to basically shrugging their shoulders. Things are moving very quickly, and AI is not simply going to disappear.
Especially when there are industries that are highly interested in making use of it. The comparison I could make is between a cobbler and a robotic shoe factory -- who wins? The cobbler doesn't stand a chance. There might be some loyal customers, but in volume, the robotic shoe factory wins. It's the John Henry story all over again, just moving into other industries.
AI's not going away. The WGA is trying to right by its writers, and that's laudable, but I fear it's a rearguard move on their part, because the future's going to be with AI, at least on those big-capital enterprises. Writers in that industry will likely become script doctors, while the AI churns out script after script.
Hollywood writers were one of those rare types of writers who could actually make decent money, at least historically, relative to most other types of writers. But the big money involved in moviemaking is precisely what makes the AI incentive all the more central to how the studios roll. The captivity of the studios to Wall Street ensures that the emphasis will be on reliable moneymaking, versus being dependent on something unpredictably human.
And just watch how AI CGI continues to evolve (and improve) -- AI's coming for the actors, next. Maybe some big names will lease out their looks to AI companies to create digital AI proxies of themselves for the screen. Or maybe studios will simply just do it. For them, AI allows for ready ownership of creative assets, so that's a good thing from their POV -- it just hoses the human creators.
We're racing headlong into an AI universe where most of us will simply be irrelevant. Ironically, I saw some articles where they were saying that AI could readily replace CEOs, doing what they do at a fraction of the price. It'll be curious how hard those wealthy CEOs fight their own extinction in the face of the same AI they used to wipe out writers, actors, and artists.
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