WGA vs. AI: What the 2023 Writers Guild of America Strike Means in the Bigger Picture
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
Of course, the Writers Guild of America Strike of 2023 has been happening for a few days now. This is not a surprise, given the rumblings that screenwriters across the nation have had for the past while. In general, there is a demand for better pay and security, and you can find all of the specific requests below (there has been complete transparency since the start of this movement):
I present all of the proposals because I won’t be focusing on them all but I wanted to make sure that the full story was presented as well. Instead, I will be focusing squarely on the one ask towards the end of the document; the Writers Guild of America (WGA) proposed:
”Regulate use of artificial intelligence on MBA-covered projects: AI can’t write or rewrite literary material; can’t be used as source material; and MBA-covered material can’t be used to train AI.”
This was met with the following response from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP):
”Rejected [their] proposal. Countered by offering annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology.”
Terrible. Condescending. Patronizing. Narrow minded.
In short, there is a looming threat that AI will take over many jobs as it fulfils a task that would take a human brain minutes to hours to complete in mere seconds. The main argument is that AI is missing the human element: the ability to actually create. This is true. Tell ChatGPT to create a Seinfeld episode, and it will regurgitate themes, ideas, or actual lines of dialogue from the many existing episodes (we know this, because there actually was a nonstop episode of Seinfeld that was completely AI generated before it was taken offline). Even when AI gets more sophisticated (it’s no longer a question of if, if you can recall how quickly AI has progressed even in weeks time, never mind years), it can’t actually achieve the level of imagination we have. It mimics.
However, that clearly isn’t an issue for greedy producers that have been rehashing microwaved leftovers until we as consumers have gotten sick to our stomachs. If you think endless remakes and franchise-based nonsense was the endgame (heh), you have no idea how far producers are willing to go in order to save money and make fortunes. I’ll try to see the glass as half full by pointing out the losses many industries have had post pandemic, and the film and television fields are certainly no different; things continue to get dark with the 2023 banking crisis currently fuelling the financial dread that has been gaining on us civilians over the course of three fucking years. In the same way that economical pitfalls clearly have no end, neither does greed and the cutting of corners.
Studios are seeing opportunities to save money by hinting at massive layoffs. They don’t even need to say anything if their only rebuttal to the AI proposal is that they will hold frequent meetings to discuss the changes in technological capabilities. How insulting is that? Their motives are as clear as day: they are embracing AI as yet another way to pay writers less (or to flat out avoid paying them at all). As you can see, there are numerous ways that writers are being taken advantage of, so piling up all of these different exploits will surely hit any storyteller hard. Sure, I know they make more money than the average person anyway, but that isn’t the point, and if you believe that it is, you’re missing the whole story. At the end of the day, people are supposed to be paid what they are owed. Additionally, if you honestly think the threat of AI starts and stops with the Writers Guild of America, you are in for a very rude awakening.
Having said all of this, I feel like the positives of AI are getting lost in the midst of this feuding, although the cons most certainly outweigh the pros. Writers like Paul Schrader, for instance, have expressed how AI can be used as a helpful tool to aid writers when they are stumped, come up with alternative angles they may be missing, and other beneficial outcomes. Writers can use AI for their benefit, and it’s clear that the WGA isn’t arguing against this. Their stipulations are asking for regulation of AI in particular ways, not the complete elimination of it. It’s mightily concerning that the AMPTP negated this request because it is only asking for limitations of AI usage; if it was the insistence to ban AI in all possible ways, I’d be a little more understanding of such a strict response.
When I was completing my Masters degree and studying digital repositories, we actually had early discussions about AI (back in 2017: way before it got as out of hand as it has). Even then there have been talks of a utopia controlled by AI: a planet where money no longer matters, because AI does all of the work for us. No more poverty. No more suffering. We create what we want and live as we desire. Robots and computers do all of the work for us, take care of us, and progress society.
Yeah, this utopia is complete bullshit, because even getting there will be pernicious to the rest of society: the middle to lower classes that can’t surface the drowning of civilization while the elite rest easily. With AI wiping out more and more jobs, how much joblessness must there be before we even reach such a state? Will most people even make it? The ideas of paradise have always been built on the backs of others: one doesn’t have to worry about working because it’s the duty of someone else to make this utopia run. Of course, handing off all acts of labour to AI may seem promising, but it’s the path to get there that is far from that.
Dr. Geoffrey Hinton worked for Google for a decade on AI before quitting this week; he used the momentum of the 2023 WGA strike to warn the populace of what he thinks the dangers of AI are (and he worked on the damn technology), mainly the malpractice of AI technology for nefarious reasons. Case in point: what we’ve already seen in so many instances, from fabricated images to misleading articles. It is far too late to stop AI if this Pandora’s box has been opened to this degree. We can’t take back what is happening.
What can we do?
Regulate it.
It is clear that the wealthy have their own plans, whether it’s to make unfathomable amounts of money while the rest of us suffer (why should they care? So they feel) or to reach a utopia that many won’t ever live to see. What needs to happen is legislation that protects humanity whilst containing AI’s capabilities, including the criminalization of certain uses of AI, the prioritization of the wellbeing of humans, and much more. If you don’t care about the 2023 WGA strike for the most part, at least care for this aspect: it is important that the majority of human beings aren’t out of work because of the choices of the greedy.
If you do care about the entertainment industry, the obvious drawback from this strike is that many television and cinematic productions are halted. It may seem like yesterday’s news because of the backlogging during the pandemic, but to have such similar instances back-to-back like this is definitely not good for industries that are already floundering. Hopefully the strike isn’t too long (particularly because the proposals were agreed upon, let’s pray), because I can foresee many rushed projects particularly in the writing department (to try and get stalled projects back on track). Besides, who wants to deal with this backlog again?
However, I like to be a fair person, and so I will (briefly) play devil’s advocate. It is possible — and likely — that many corners are cut from studios because they need to recoup on losses and save themselves from bankruptcy. Having said that, what the WGA is infuriated with are practices that are as old as time (and are only getting worse, if you consider the whole AI angle), and distributing funds more fairly as a standard praxis could have prevented the industries reaching this particular point. Sure, production companies need to make their money back, but they’ve always prioritized themselves over the artists and storytellers that make up the rest of the studio lot. It’s unfortunate that it’s come back to bite them in their asses at this very point, but it was bound to happen as history repeats itself (consider the similar strikes we’ve seen over time).
Who knows where this strike will go, and for how long. All I know is that an important discussion — which already should have been held — can be derived from this: AI is getting out of control. I don’t want to seem like a hypocrite, since I used AI as a joke, but that was a one-off and I was using it clearly for satirical purposes. I’m not against AI: I’m mostly concerned about the evils that AI will be used for, be they fabricated pieces of incriminating evidence, fictitious pornographic content of those that don’t consent to it, and other terrifying possibilities that are already coming true. Most importantly, AI can throw the majority of workers out of employment. It sounds like a dream for many CEOs: all that money coming in and not needing to go out.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.