As the Writers Guild of America (WGA) continues organizing strikes against major Hollywood studios, there are proposals to develop AI to learn how to write scripts.
The strike was launched after contract negotiations between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) regarding better compensation and equity structures broke down, crippling the entertainment industry.
One of WGA's main concerns is that AI might become a potential competitor in the near future, undermining human writers and their creativity.
ChatGPT cannot replace scriptwriters: Codega
In an opinion piece, Linda Codega revealed that the Gizmodo team tested how AI chatbots like ChatGPT would be able to create a sci-fi fantasy script.
Codega emphasizes that AI chatbots normally undergo learning processes on a dataset composed of works, texts, and articles and let their algorithms imitate neural pathways to produce words, phrases, or sentences.
"Currently, there is also no way to copyright AI-generated text," Codega said. "Many involved in the writing process have brought this up as an issue with allowing AI writing into writers' rooms."
Codega also detailed that when Gizmodo tested ChatGPT's scriptwriting skills, the produced dialogue was "laughably wooden" and "poorly constructed."
Using ChatGPT, Codega adds, has ethical concerns at nearly every level of its use and production, including ecological and labor problems, such as the cooling of its servers and the use of cheap labor from Kenya by ChatGPT's developers, OpenAI.
Codega concluded that ChatGPT and other AI tools could not replace writers, saying that while it can produce ideas for scripts, writing scripts is a different thing that takes time, skill, and intuition, which AI lacks.
"The WGA is not unreasonable for seeking ways to limit this technology," Codega said.
Growing support
The writers' strike has garnered support from several creators and showrunners.
ABC's "A Million Little Things" creator and showrunner DJ Nash opted not to discuss the show's finale, citing support for the WGA even if it is "hard" for him to do so.
Nash added that he is joining the strike for the future generation of writers just as the previous generation went on strike for them.
"Sorry To Bother You" writer and director Boots Riley tweeted that he will not promote his new series "I'm a Virgo" while the strike continues.
Seth McFarlane, a mand behind the long-running animated series "Family Guy" and the voice behind its main characters Peter Griffin, Stewie Griffin, and Brian Griffin, also announced he would be stepping away from producing the show in solidarity with the strike.
According to Dateline's Dominic Patten, while "Family Guy" has recently finished its 21st season on May 7th, McFarlane's other animated series, "American Dad," is still within its 20th season with "about three months of scripts, v/o, etc. already completed."
Meanwhile, actor Sean Penn expressed his support for the WGA strike. While promoting the film "Black Files" at the Cannes Film Festival, Penn stated that the entertainment industry in Hollywood has been taking advantage of writers, actors, and directors for the longest time.
Regarding the use of AI in scriptwriting, he calls the producers' pushback on the writers' strike "a human obscenity."
