The Oscar goes to ... HAL? Why AI is at center of Hollywood strike.
| Culver City, Calif.
Can ChatGPT write the next big summer blockbuster?聽
When The Monitor asked the artificial intelligence chatbot to create a science fiction comedy featuring a soccer team and father-and-son relationships, it instantly concocted a plot.
鈥淭he year is 3001,鈥� begins the synopsis, 鈥渁nd the intergalactic soccer team of the United Galactic Alliance (UGA) are on the brink of the biggest game in the galaxy 鈥� the Intergalactic Cup.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onCan 鈥� should 鈥� creativity be manufactured? What provides the spark of inspiration? Those questions might seem philosophical for a picket line, but screenwriters say they are existential in a time of artificial intelligence.
The team鈥檚 star player, Zane, is a handsome astronaut. The inciting incident? Zane discovers he has a half-brother, Max, who is the son of a rival space captain.
鈥淲orse yet, it turns out that Max is the star player of their rivals 鈥� the Dark Side, a team of alien miscreants bent on galactic domination,鈥� continues the storyline. Zane must decide whether to help Max win the Cup and make his father proud or ensure UGA wins and safeguard the galaxy from the Dark Side.聽
The outline concludes: 鈥淶ane and Max struggle to reconcile their newfound relationship as they face off in the most important match in intergalactic history.鈥�
It鈥檚 doubtful that this generic storyline would cause the agents for Austin Butler and Timoth茅e Chalamet to scramble to buy the movie rights. But here on Earth, a real-life, high-stakes conflict is playing out between two teams. A major reason why Hollywood screenwriters are striking against studios is because they fear that artificial intelligence will usurp their jobs.聽
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) doesn鈥檛 want to ban AI as a tool for scriptwriting. But it does want regulations to prevent studios from using AI to partially or completely write scripts. The studios, who are represented at the bargaining table by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), want flexibility to utilize the rapidly evolving technology. The disagreement boils down to economic compensation. But writers on the picket lines view AI as an existential threat. The question about whether humans and their creativity are dispensable is one that reverberates across other sectors of society.
鈥淚s there something fundamentally unique about humans?鈥� asks Mike Wolmetz, program manager for human and machine intelligence in the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. 鈥淭here are things that are unique. Can they be replicated? We will see.鈥�
Outside Hollywood studios, it鈥檚 common to see striking writers carrying placards such as 鈥淎lexa will not replace us鈥� and 鈥淲rote ChatGPT this.鈥�
鈥淭he entire reason why we鈥檙e out here, in my opinion, is rooted in corporate greed, but also this idea of introducing AI to replace us,鈥� says Kira Talise, a writer protesting outside Sony Studios in Culver City. 鈥淲e are the people who write the content that makes these companies billions of dollars. ... It鈥檚 really disheartening to be undervalued in this way and for it to be perceived that we could just be replaced by computers.鈥澛�
If some writers鈥� views of artificial intelligence most closely resemble Sarah Connor鈥檚 in 鈥淭he Terminator,鈥� others are embracing the technology. In Berlin, Tristan Wolff used AI to develop a pitch for an episode of a crime series on German television. The production company was looking for fresh ideas for their long-running show. So they fed ChatGPT a general template of the drama and who the characters are. Mr. Wolff says that the producers in the room laughed when the AI tool offered up story ideas, because most of them were similar plotlines as hundreds of other episodes. Yet it also generated two ideas that they were excited to develop into scripts.聽
Mr. Wolff on Medium about how to interact with AI to write scripts. He starts by feeding ideas into AI so that it will 鈥渉allucinate鈥� a story.聽
鈥淚f you want the AI to plot it out, you would have to have a longer prompt, which gives it more dramaturgical constraints and more information about the characters, their flaws and dreams,鈥� says the writer in a Zoom interview. 鈥淓ven then, it鈥檚 not guaranteed that it creates a good story, but it might create something that鈥檚 interesting enough for you to work with.鈥�
AI is a language-processing tool that is trained to predict the next word or sentence in a dialogue or a stream of text. You experience AI every time you start typing and a suggestion pops up with possible wording to complete the rest of the sentence. It anticipates how to respond by calculating probabilities of which words are most likely to come next. AI does this by scraping the Internet for data. For all their formidable abilities, AI tools still have limitations 鈥� for now, at least.聽
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have an episodic memory like you have,鈥� says Mr. Wolmetz, the scientist from APL. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have the formal reasoning that we have. They don鈥檛 have factual world knowledge.鈥�
Phillip Berg, a Danish writer and director who lives in the Canary Islands, believes that AI is no substitute for the human mind when it comes to creating unique stories. He does, however, believe AI can help. Mr. Berg recently launched , a tool that he likens to a sparring partner for writers. AI ScreenWriter can plot a three-act structure that follows a template for beats in a story. It can also generate scenes that incorporate characters鈥� traits and motivations.When it comes to dialogue, AI may be great at mimicking HAL from 鈥�2001: A Space Odyssey,鈥� but it鈥檚 a long way from replacing Aaron Sorkin.聽
鈥淐reating the way a person talks is super nuanced, and AI is not going to completely replace any writers doing that,鈥� says Mr. Berg in an interview via Zoom.
That鈥檚 one reason Hollywood producers won鈥檛 be able to rely on Google Bard to spit out the next 鈥淪hakespeare in Love鈥� anytime soon. Nonetheless, screenwriters were alarmed when the AMPTP refused to discuss the issue of AI during negotiations with the WGA.聽
鈥淭heir chief negotiator, Carol Lombardini, said as plain as day, 鈥業鈥檓 not going to restrict the technology I might want to use at some point,鈥欌�� says WGA negotiating committee co-chair Chris Keyser during a break from marching outside Fox studios on a recent afternoon. 鈥淚t鈥檚 too simple for them to put a writer in a room with a machine. ... As I often say, 鈥楾he machine making it inhumanly fast and the writer making it humanly good, replace 90% of us.鈥欌�澛�
The AMPTP鈥檚 only comment on the issue has been via a May 4 .
鈥淲e value the work of creatives. The best stories are original, insightful and often come from people鈥檚 own experiences,鈥� the AMPTP wrote. 鈥淎I raises hard, important creative and legal questions for everyone. ... So, it鈥檚 something that requires a lot more discussion, which we鈥檝e committed to doing.鈥�
Some have dubbed AI a 鈥減lagiarism machine.鈥� For that reason, studios may be leery to accept AI-reliant pitches and scripts that could leave them open to lawsuits.聽
鈥淚f AI is filling in the blanks of your story based on all of what鈥檚 come before 鈥� you know, it has access to every book ever written, every movie ever made, and all of those scripts 鈥� then how do we get anything new and original?鈥� says Jessica Sharzer, who wrote the screenplay for the Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively comedy thriller 鈥淎 Simple Favor,鈥� as well as a sequel that is in pre-production. 鈥淲ill you ever end up with 鈥楨verything Everywhere All at Once鈥� by clicking a button?鈥�
Then again, many mainstream blockbusters draw from existing and fairly predictable paradigms. Think, for example, the thousands of iterations of the Cinderella story. But if a writer hopes to use AI to create a story that stands out 鈥� or is eligible for copyright 鈥� the script will still have to modify or arrange AI-generated material in a creative way. The key to avoiding generic outcomes is creating unusual prompts for AI to work with.
The capabilities of artificial intelligence are also likely to grow in leaps and bounds. APL鈥檚 Mr. Wolmetz isn鈥檛 aware of benchmarks that track growth in AI creativity. However, he observes, until recently, ChatGPT didn鈥檛 do well on LSAT exams.
It鈥檚 one thing for machines to mimic happiness, sadness, jealousy, anger, shame, or desire. It鈥檚 something else altogether to create a script that leaves a lasting impression because it authentically reflects real-life experiences, which can be messy and contradictory. Those kinds of stories require authors to mine their inner recesses.聽
鈥淲hen I write, I always think about the emotional journey first, because the plot points are completely random until they have an emotional weight to them,鈥� says Ms. Sharzer, who believes AI is a useful tool for scriptwriters but is a long way from being able to track a character鈥檚 interior evolution. 鈥淲e are thinking on a plot level because that鈥檚 the easiest level to grab on to. But Meg LeFauve, who was one of the writers on 鈥業nside Out,鈥� talks about 鈥榯he hot lava.鈥� That is the thing that you don鈥檛 really want to touch. That鈥檚 deep down under the surface of yourself. That is the place where all the good ideas are.鈥�
