# Writers Guild of America goes on strike (5/2/23) tentative deal (9/25/23) Now accepted (10/9/23) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** ai\ **Created:** [May 2, 2023, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-guild-of-america-goes-on-strike-5-2-23-tentative-deal-9-25-23-now-accepted-10-9-23/983448 "2023-05-02T04:36:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 20
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2023, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-guild-of-america-goes-on-strike-5-2-23-tentative-deal-9-25-23-now-accepted-10-9-23/983448/20 "2023-05-03T13:22:35Z")
> [@epbrown](#): > > I’ve seen nothing to indicate that the WGA is the most knowledgeable about the impact of streaming. …I said “how streaming has impacted income”, which is what is relevant here. Since the advent of streaming, writers are earning _less_. Many can’t pay rent. The writer for “The Bear” had a negative bank account and a bow-tie bought on credit when he recieved the WGA award for Best Comedy. Most writers are on poverty wages. Seasons have gone from 20 episodes to 10, and they are getting paid for 10, but the workload remains the same. It’s a shit show. And the studios want it to be even worse. > [@epbrown](#): > > The phrasing of the demand for audience numbers actually indicates otherwise. How do you know what value you bring to the company if the company keeps that information secret? There is no reason why the studios should be hiding that information. > [@epbrown](#): > > And the stated concerns about AI seem to reference AI-the-media-buzzword rather than AI-the-technology. It had nothing to do with “the media buzzword.” What the WGA asked for was very specific. - Regulate the use of artificial intelligence on MBA covered projects - AI can’t write or rewrite literary material - AI can’t be used as source material - MBA covered material can’t be used to train AI. These aren’t things “coming down the line.” These are things that are happening right now, which is why it was included in the negotiations. This isn’t a copyright issue. It’s a genuine threat to both jobs and intellectual property. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I’m skeptical that an AI like ChatGPT could write a decent script. Has anyone tried it? I’d like read the results, People have tried, and no ChatGPT can’t write a decent script, but “writing a decent script” isn’t the pressing concern. > [@Rolling Stone](#): > > “The writers are very right to be spooked by this,” says programmer and AI consultant Dylan Budnick. “Studios can save a buck, wrangle creative control away from the writers to please advertisers/funders, and focus on editing a pre-written script instead of dealing with a range of voices and takes from a writers’ room.” > > Most elements of a screenplay “can all be easily spit out by the models used by OpenAI,” Budnick claims. “The job then becomes reading and editing, which is easily done by whoever has creative control.” Given a prompt such as: “Write me a movie about Spider-Man meeting Batman, include stage directions, suggest actors, soundtrack, etc. Write it in the style of a detective noir film,” the model can generate a roughly 50-page script. > > … > > Screenwriter Tyler Hisel, who’s worked in the entertainment industry for more than 15 years, says he sees AI generators as “the unifying existential issue” in the Writers Guild’s recent negotiations with the studios. > > “A lot of writers are looking at that and saying, ‘We don’t want this profession to just be cleaning up drafts written by ChatGPT in the future,’” Hisel says. “There’s something to be said for protecting the business of this profession and for these studios to protect the value of human expression. A good screenplay is more than just a logical plot, it’s something that strikes at those intangible things within us.” > **[Why Striking Hollywood Writers Fear an AI Future](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/wga-strike-hollywood-writers-ai-artificial-intelligence-chatgpt-screenplay-technology-1234728014/)** > > The WGA strike is now underway, and a key reason negotiations fell apart is the film and TV industries’ refusal to budge on the potential use of AI. I’ll point to my example of the Leftovers script in the other AI thread. (Spoilers for the Leftovers finale, CW suicide) The resolution of that story-arc is simply something that an AI would be capable of. Not if the “writers room” is being driven by editors cleaning up AI drafts. > [@The Open Letter to "Pause All AI Development"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-open-letter-to-pause-all-ai-development/981862/212): > > …which of course, is the entire point of the strike. The writers can’t allow this to happen because, and I’m not being hyperbolic here, if they do, it will destroy the film and television industry as we know it. As I posted in the other thread: This isn’t really about “Artificial Intelligence” at all. This isn’t really “AI.” Its the “classic techbro” mania for non-stop growth. The modern era of robber barons, of unrestrained capitalism. When somebody said earlier in the thread that “the pr… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-guild-of-america-goes-on-strike-5-2-23-tentative-deal-9-25-23-now-accepted-10-9-23/983448)._