The Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced a strike starting last Tuesday involving more than 12,000 of its members. It is the largest strike organized by the WGA since 2008. Various issues such as salary payments, and remuneration for content that is now streamed are among their demands for the return of workers. But the most interesting issue is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the film industry in the United States.
Among the demands that failed to be agreed upon in discussions with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) – which includes Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Discovery-Warner, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony – is the use of their work to train AI. The WGA requests that any work produced by members not be used to train AI. Use of the work as a source for training AI, for rewriting human work and first drafts is also prohibited.
The concern among writers about the use of AI to replace their work is not a small issue. There are already reports of human writers losing their jobs and being replaced by AI. Among the issues raised is plagiarism when human works are used to train ChatGPT without permission and payment.
Since the strike was announced, various productions such as late night shows are no longer on the air in the United States. The production of TV series and films is also affected because they cannot continue without human writers.