Can AI write 'Ted Lasso'? Writers strike may open door to ChatGPT-written scripts.
As the use of artificial intelligence surges, Hollywood screenwriters, who have been on strike since May 2, are increasingly concerned about the effects the new technology could have on the industry. The Writers Guild of America, the union representing film and television writers, wants limits on how studios use AI for writing shows and movies.
With network television writers working, on average, under 30 weeks per year and making over $130,000, a team of writers could be an attractive target for studios looking to save money.
Writing fiction – and in character – is something that large language models (LLMs) should be good at. Theoretically, a human could supply a theme and key plot points, leaving ChatGPT or another LLM to fill in plot development and dialogue.
LLMs might already be too good at writing fiction. They sometimes produce inaccurate articles – pretending to be news content – such as falsely accusing an Australian mayor of bribery and a law professor of harassment. Hundreds of AI-written books listing ChatGPT as an author are already on sale at Amazon and can be produced in a matter of hours. Others might use ChatGPT as a “writing partner” to suggest or develop topics or for editing. ChatGPT has even been used to generate a book based on a provided title, although the content had “inconsistencies” and reused character names from other sources.
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Despite these limitations, LLMs could save time and reduce costs. Instead of asking an LLM to write an entire book with only one request, a human author could lay out a plot, define characters and ask the LLM to fill in dialogue – drawing on an idea developed by the human or the AI. The human may still need to do some (or a lot of) editing, but the process could save time. Getting strong content out of LLMs may turn out to be an in-demand skill if an individual can cause it to produce strong content consistently.
Ironically, the WGA may provide an opportunity for those who want to co-write with an LLM to gain a foothold. A long writers’ strike may make studios more likely to take a risk on AI-generated or AI-co-generated content than they would if they could stick to the safe model of human-generated content.
Studios may see AI as a way to save money
If AI writing of scripts is shown to have promise, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers – the association negotiating for major studios such as Apple, Amazon, Disney, Netflix and Paramount – would be far less likely to trade it away as a negotiating concession to WGA. Also, given Apple and Amazon’s tech background and Netflix’s experimentation with new types of content (such as “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style shows), this type of risk-taking seems right up their alley.
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Writers who can wield LLMs effectively will be far more productive than their manual-writing counterparts and may command significantly higher salaries if they can do the work of two or three (or more) writers. WGA would be wise to start thinking of writing in terms of product instead of input, as this could provide significant financial benefit to some writers (though it may significantly reduce the number of writers on a show). Studios, similarly, would be foolish to commit to having a minimum number of writers on shows or a minimum writing timeframe, as WGA has requested.
LLMs likely will become a crucial part of entertainment. Imagine an immersive show or game that goes beyond simply letting players make critical decisions and playing pre-recorded lines of dialogue but instead creates a unique interactive experience while drawing on key plot points. That would go beyond Netflix’s interactive specials; however, it follows the same concept and would appeal to the audience of these programs.
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In the long term, both writers and studios may lose if AI limitations are incorporated in the eventual agreement between writers and producers, which creates de facto policy for much of the entertainment industry.
WGA may find itself left out in the cold regarding the benefits of this technology to writers. At the same time, studios that agree to limitations may place themselves at a competitive disadvantage to video game makers and smaller studios that compete with them. Writers and studios would be wise to adopt AI or risk getting left behind.
Jeremy Straub is an assistant professor in the North Dakota State University Computer Science Department, a Challey Institute Faculty fellow and the director of the NDSU Institute for Cyber Security Education and Research.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Writers strike could lead to AI scripts WGA wants to prevent
