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    * [13]World at Work (BUTTON)

  4 minute readMay 3, 202311:50 AM UTCLast Updated ago

'Plagiarism machines': Hollywood writers and studios battle over the future
of AI

  By [14]Dawn Chmielewski (BUTTON)
  and [15]Lisa Richwine (BUTTON)
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  LOS ANGELES, May 3 (Reuters) - Hollywood writers have for decades
  penned sci-fi scripts featuring machines taking over the world. Now,
  they are fighting to make sure robots do not take their jobs.

  The Writers Guild of America is seeking to restrict the use of
  artificial intelligence in writing film and television scripts.
  Hollywood studios, battling to make streaming services profitable and
  dealing with shrinking ad revenues, have rejected that idea, saying
  they would be open to discussing new technologies once a year,
  according to the guild.

  A spokesperson for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television
  Producers, which is negotiating the contract on behalf of the studios,
  did not comment.

  The dispute over AI is one of several issues that led Hollywood’s film
  and TV writers to strike Monday, marking the first work stoppage in 15
  years.

  Although the issue is one of the last items described in a WGA summary
  of negotiating points, many of which focus on improving compensation in
  the streaming era, the debate over AI's role in the creative process
  will determine the future of entertainment for decades to come.

  Screenwriter John August, a member of the WGA negotiating committee,
  said writers have two concerns regarding AI.

  "We don't want our material feeding them, and we also don't want to be
  fixing their sloppy first drafts," he said.

  At issue is a rapidly growing, multifaceted technology that's swept
  across global industry.

  In Hollywood, AI is helping to erase wrinkles from an aging performer’s
  face, clean up an actor’s liberal use of f-bombs and draw animated
  short films with the aid of OpenAI’s Dall-E, which can create realistic
  images. Some writers are experimenting with creating scripts.

'LAST BASTION'

  "The problem here seems to be that we thought that creativity, per se,
  was the last bastion, the line in the sand, that would stop machines
  from replacing someone's job," said Mike Seymour, co-founder of Motus
  Lab at the University of Sydney, who has a background in visual effects
  and artificial intelligence and has consulted with several studios. "I
  would argue that that's just some kind of arbitrary notion that people
  had that caught the popular imagination."
  Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) East picket outside
  Peacock Newfront streaming service offices in New York City
  Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) East picket outside
  Peacock Newfront streaming service offices, in New York City.
  REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

  AI can help writers break "the blank piece of paper phenomenon,"
  Seymour said, and it's good at what he describes as "pantomime," or
  producing straight-forward, blunt dialogue, though it lacks nuance.

  "I'm also not claiming that AI is going to become super intelligent and
  produce, you know, 'Citizen Kane,' because it just isn't right," said
  Seymour.

  Writers fear they will be sidelined, or at least, shortchanged.

  "What (AI) could do is spew out a garbled piece of work," said Warren
  Leight, a screenwriter who served as showrunner and executive producer
  of the NBC drama “Law & Order: SVU.”

  "Instead of hiring you to do a first draft, (studios) hire you to do a
  second draft, which pays less. You want to nip that in the bud."

  The union proposed that material generated by an AI system such as
  ChatGPT could not be considered "literary material" or "source
  material," terms already defined in their contract.

  As a practical matter, that means that if a studio executive were to
  hand a writer an AI-generated script to revise, the writer could not be
  paid a lower rewrite or polish rate.

  The union is arguing existing scripts should not be used to train
  artificial intelligence, which would open the door to intellectual
  property theft.

  "We call it the 'Nora Ephron problem,'" August said, referring to the
  writer of romantic comedy hits including "When Harry Met Sally" and
  "You've Got Mail."

  "One can imagine a studio training an AI on all of Nora Ephron's
  scripts, and having it write a comedy in her voice. Our proposals would
  prevent that."

  WGA chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman said some members have another term
  for AI: "plagiarism machines.”

  “We have made a reasonable proposal that the company should keep AI out
  of the business of writing television and movies and not try and
  replace writers," she said.
  Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles,
  additional reporting by Rollo Ross and Danielle Broadway in Los
  Angeles. Editing by Kenneth Li and Lincoln Feast
  (BUTTON)
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