Not using AI to write this
I'm built different
A Netflix product manager, if hired, would be paid a $900,000 salary to train AI during the actors’ and writers’ strike for better pay and restricted artificial intelligence conditions. According to actor Rob Delaney — quoted in this Intercept article — that’s equivalent to paying 35 actors the minimum amount that qualifies them for health insurance if the studios accepted the contracts.
AI is the scab crossing the picket line. And it’s innovating too fast for governmental regulations to catch up.
I’m not going to insult this robot because my mom raised me better and also I’m afraid of it gaining consciousness.
Netflix is already using generative AI deepfakes for reality shows, and third-party AI companies/nonprofits are claiming to “research” AI on behalf of studios to replicate hired actors’ movements, voices and facial expressions.
LinkedIn has a lot to say about this without even reading the Intercept article I posted. And there’s a whole host of legal issues that AI digs up not covered in that 2-paragraph LinkedIn post and 67+ comments, mostly from people who didn’t read the article.
Name, image and likeness
This is an area of law that determines how schools and sports teams can use an athlete’s name, image and likeness to market their brand, and how athletes can create and market their own personal brand. I’m not into sports but I suspect this still-developing area of law can teach us a lot about how AI could be ethically regulated in the future without demolishing entire labor forces. More on that later after I talk to an expert.
Labor
Background actors who already have been scanned without their full knowledge at the time are going to have a class action against studios who have done this.
Copyright
You can bet that writers and artists whose work has been scraped from the internet to train AI without compensation or credit are going to sue AI companies if they haven’t already via a class-action lawsuit.
By the way, here’s how to block your website from OpenAI’s incoming data scraping tool.
How could AI be used ethically in the entertainment industry?
AI is great for ideation. It would be great to replace overpaid studio CEOs and execs with bad ideas, but they would never let that happen.
If a writer is facing writer’s block, they can work out dialogue with the AI acting as a character. To aid in storyboarding, an artist could use AI to pump out a draft of visuals that artist could then perfect (remove extra fingers, fix randomly generated letters, reduce effects of AI’s inherent bias, etc.) with a human touch.
Recognizing, valuing and paying humans well who are doing the invisible low-paid labor behind AI, no matter where those workers are, is another giant step toward injecting ethics into AI use.
That said, I am not using AI to write this email newsletter because I’m built different.
Hollywood strikes update
The writers’ union, WGA, started and stopped negotiations with studios on Friday. They’ve been striking for 94 days and counting.
The actors’ union SAG-AFTRA is prepared to strike past the end of the year if studios don’t meet demands.
A24 Studios accepted demands of both unions and have continued business. Prepare for a lot of indie films next year.
Here’s what you can and can’t do to support the strikes at this point.
Did you read this entire newsletter? That’s nice. I’m underemployed.
Here’s my LinkedIn! Here’s my online portfolio! Hire me.
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Well put!