Screenwriters seek protections from AI as part of strike

Hollywood screenwriters, as part of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), are hitting the picket lines. This time, it's not just about better pay or job security - their protest is also aimed at the rise of Artificial Intelligence in their creative domain.

WGA's Demands: The WGA is demanding regulations to prevent AI from encroaching into scriptwriting, with fears of their creative works being used to feed AI systems, potentially taking over their jobs.

• The WGA is insisting on a set of rules as part of their demands, seeking to ensure that AI "can't write or rewrite literary material, can't be used as source material," and that the works penned by their writers "can't be used to train AI."
• John August, the creative genius behind "Big Fish," voiced these concerns. "We don't want our material feeding AI systems, and we also don't want to be fixing their sloppy first drafts," he said.

AMPTP's Response: This plea for AI control was shrugged off by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). They're more keen on chit-chat about AI's future once a year than clamping down on it now. Despite this, they admit that AI does stir up a cocktail of creative and legal conundrums.

• As it stands, the rulebook states that AI can't take credit for their scriptwriting efforts or file for copyright. Oh, and according to the WGA, a writer has to be a flesh-and-blood "person".

AI in Hollywood: AI's foray into Hollywood isn't exactly new. Remember the South Park episode "Deep Learning"? The one that had everyone chuckling and scratching their heads at the same time? Yeah, that episode had a co-writer, and it was none other than ChatGPT, a chatbot.