EXPLAINED: The AI Debate Surrounding The WGA Writers Strike

[@mommar4858]

It's not about when AI is smart enough to write a good story, it's about when humans become dumbed down enough to fall for it.

[@TechenZz]

Imo it's both, short term its the latter and long term its the former. The more we understand the existential threat, the more we can positively impact the outcome.

[@B2Dtwo]

I'm pretty sure that an AI could write stories that you are unable to tell if it were written by a person or not.

[@vincentbaca790]

Well, it's a.human choice.that is deciding.all of our fates...look at the arts and entertainment....when did the average become so appealing? There's too much money spent on average mind numbing projects...who wants to watch this? With few exceptions, most quality TV is on pay or streaming channels...your average TV show are just average...and this is tragic...who are these writers writing these average shows and demanding more money? Sooner, if not later, lots of people are going to lose their jobs...it's happening now..Google, Twitter Disney, Burger King, Bed Bath and Beyond....all these companies are trimming the fat, rightfully so...Goodluck to these laid off workers...did they think their jobs would last forever? AI is coming and the workers will suffer....

[@tylerharris4392]

to be fair, modern movies for the past 20 years have been declining

[@lexis4490]

Less about writers because tv shows have gotten better.

[@phillipwalker787]

Thanks to John for your considerate, kind and heart warming complimentary words of appreciation! And thank you to everyone who came and continues to come out and picket with us! Anyone one who wants to come and support is always welcome and soon we will be hopefully expanding the picketing to places like Atlanta. We see this not as a cause for ourselves but as a cause for the future. This is the moment and the moment is ours if we choose to stand up and grasp it. I know there have been trolls online but all I have received in my life is encouragement and support. It warms my heart and gives me faith. (which is something that writers are not often wired to have) Thank you all! You are all incredible people! Love and solidarity

[@captain_context9991]

Imagine if writers were able to come up with a single good TV or movie script for the last 5 years tho. Free of today's desperately woke BS that will age no better than milk. Maybe they would be more appreciated if they created modern classics and modern franchises instead of ruining old ones.

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

Winter is coming. XD

[@phillipwalker787]

@@UniqueBreakfastTaco A line written by a writer. Thanks for proving our point and thank you for your continued support!

[@vincentbaca790]

@@captain_context9991 Cap, I agree with you completely....the movies today suck. The stories suck. Who's getting paid to write this bs? I cringe everytime I see a new movie coming out...the same with tv.....who wants to watch or pay for all this crap...Hollywood has got to be losing money....If the upcoming Indiana Jones movie doesn't have a great script, then all is truly lost...when did the writers make "average" their goal? Average sucks....for my money ..

[@captain_context9991]

@@vincentbaca790 Yeah I made a very populistic and easy-to-agree-with statement. But how to fix it, is quite something else. Fact is. The new StarWars, the DREADFUL Game of Thrones ending, all the spinoffs of popular franchises, the catastrophic post Endgame Marvel movies, the Lord Of The Rings disasters.... They all make money. People "consume" it regardless. Because its there. Right in your face. Most people arent very smart. Or critical. So they do make their money back. Its a bit like that guy with the forklift that ruined a ton of Bud Light... Yeah, cool, dude... But you first had to BUY all that Bud Light. I have been a game designer for 8 years. So I have a great deal of respect for the creative process. Putting something out there that actually works is hard work. The problem with modern movies is that its made for a modern audience with the cultural hoops and twists we are surrounded by TODAY. Which means they will never be classics. This is why mobile phones are rarely present in any classic movie. Because the moment you pull a phone out and use it to solve a problem, you take the viewer out of the story and trivialise or DATE the movie. Basically... Writers today are given a whole list of criterias. Goals they must hit. A certain amount of LQBZRG-community representation... "Stronk, independant female lead" Nobody should swear or say anything degreating to or around women.... I mean... 30 of those. And if you take your top 10 favourite movies and squeese them through all those criterias, then they would have never been made. Or they get made, but turn out complete shlt.And then the audience is blamed for not liking this BS. "WOKE" is a disgusting concept in itself. But it basically means to.... Be aware of the social, cultural issues of our time... Which is fine. But the kind of woke that ruins movies, is something completely different.

[@ladyluck3984]

So who gets sued when the AI does copywrite infringement?

[@Hal-Blue]

No one cared when customer service support for anything was shipped overseas, no one careed when automation took over for cashiers. And they called this all nonskilled work. And did not care. But now that threatens "skilled" work for people who make more money. They use the same wording of un-skilled workers to try to save jobs. Also they credit a person with basic income that was proposed by non-academics long ago. And no one called him on that. Just sad.

[@irCurts_Old_Gamer]

The more blah blah blah I hear on this topic, the more I realize the problem with AI is not intelligence or artificial, the real issue is the same for ever other part of life-GREED.

[@dailyrider2975]

Being that Corporations are "people" I would think at some point the CEOs and Execs could easily be replaced by AI as those jobs can be done by anyone. Also this is exactly what humans do to themselves, come up with something that could make our lives better and twist it to harm as many as possible.

[@Dyskresiac]

Honestly I had no idea most shows nowadays WEREN'T written by AI. They're so formulaic while saying as little as possible... You could've fooled me.

[@B2Dtwo]

AI would never associate itself with the crap these writers are churning out. When AI starts putting the deadbeats out of work, you are going to be stunned by the increase in quality. Stunned.

[@Dyskresiac]

@@B2Dtwo Unlikely. Because it will still be run by useless suits chasing a quick buck at mass appeal drivel while cancelling any show half decent.

[@ArchArturo]

It's interesting and scary... I grew up with Sci-Fi stories claiming that AI would remove the menial jobs, but only leave creative works as they are "inherently human", due to the exploration of the feelings, the visualization of ideas, etc. But... Now it's the other way around, and, as an Architect, it's creepy.

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

Lol...and it's glorious. Learn to weld. XD

[@ArchArturo]

@@UniqueBreakfastTaco why is it glorious?

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

@@ArchArturo because the world has a way of humbling us, and it's always interesting watching people get their comeuppance

[@ArchArturo]

@@UniqueBreakfastTaco What kind of people? I know carpentry, I know I can get by, but still.

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

@@ArchArturo entertainment, by and large, is a side effect of creating a world where we no longer toil for food, water and housing. The court jester, if you will. It's a nicety, but wholly unnecessary for survival. Hollywood as a whole has a distinct disdain for normal folks, thus I offer no sympathies when it's their turn in the meat grinder.

[@jakehays5475]

First of all thank you for the shout out to special effects. All of this started because of streaming services. Companies like Netflix are trying to hold on the original contracts from when they were first starting out. Anyone below the line who works on a show take a lesser contract because Netflix claimed that they couldn’t compete with the big media companies. Stage hands almost went on strike a couple of years ago over this. The problem with all of this is that producers really don’t care about making a good movie. All they want to make is money. The fact that when writers say we want to make the same money for streaming services that we do for feature films and the production company comes back and says we will just have everything written with Ai is not a good sign.

[@robertdouble559]

The dream of the entertainment industry is to say "AI...please write me a script for movie that will make 2 billion dollars at the box office", that's the only input they have to offer.

[@kani75]

Title: "Cosmic Nexus" Genre: Sci-Fi/Action/Adventure In a world where advanced technology and extraterrestrial beings coexist, a brilliant young scientist must unlock the secrets of a powerful cosmic artifact before a ruthless intergalactic warlord uses it to destroy humanity. With the help of a fearless alien warrior, they embark on an epic journey across the cosmos to save Earth and secure the future of the universe.

[@robertdouble559]

@@kani75 sounds lame

[@kani75]

My name was the only part in my previous message not created by ChatGpt. Oh... You mean the plot?

[@jessicabixler1658]

1. If recognition of our patterns and creativity pushes up out the patterns will get very boring 2. Companies need our money. If we have none neither will they.

[@B2Dtwo]

It's not rehashing the same old patterns. That's what the writers on strike do. AI will soon be creating stories that will blow you away with originality.

[@B2Dtwo]

Who is standing up for the artists? You know, the ones who used to draw, trace, and paint Disney animation frame by frame. Some people will never understand technology.

[@Chaoitcme]

There are still animators. Hand drawn 2D animation transitioned to 3D animation. Animation jobs were not lost but changed from 2D ink on paper to 3D CGI animation. The issue with AI writing is that it takes way jobs from people instead of transitioning one job to a different job.

[@brianlevine249]

Uh the value of their work stands up for the artist. If the art they are creating is no longer valuable well I guess that person has to be happy just creating art.

[@B2Dtwo]

@@Chaoitcme I see your point but one CGI animator can create the same output that used to require a very large team of people to draw, copy, paint, and to create and manage the physical cellulose and paint. CGI animation resulted in a massive reduction in jobs while, at the same time, output of animated content was grew exponentially.. Your argument would be as if I argued for your point of view by saying, well, AI is not taking away the job or writers because somebody needs to write the prompts for AI. It's just transitioning from writing content to writing prompts for AI to write the content.

[@MISTAJZA]

Ironic that Hollywood created the Terminator franchise, which is about a rogue AI taking over everything, and now we are on the precipice of AI taking over Hollywood.

[@legatilegions8055]

AI would still write better scripts than 99% of the hollywood writers we got today... Its really bad

[@smokyondagrass2353]

that's more to do with the gig style hiring process studios r doing so they can pay writers less. kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5qyfnyQmMaKf7s

[@silspyro_5774]

AI isn't the problem its how it will be used thats the issue. It will be used to increase profits while disposing of workers. Meanwhile the government will continue to call the middle/lower class lazy and refuse to adjust to this new age

[@LauraCordes]

I put the plot of the story I'm writing into an AI writing bot, and it was completely wrong. Hilariously wrong, in fact. AI cannot replace human writers, no way. It can only replicate writing patterns in a way that steers away from the intended message, because no AI can replace the human heart and soul. It can only mimic messaging that's already out there. And today, it's all about what generates more income for the top 1%. I stand in solidarity with the writers on strike.

[@RR-ds4sd]

Don't do it, AI bots scrape every bit of writing, twist a little, and spit as original material. Free AI bots are actually ripping people's ideas.

[@B2Dtwo]

@@RR-ds4sd That's not at all like how they work. Someone must have given your little writer brain a grossly oversimplified explanation, sort of as if they were explaining calculus to a first grade math class. You're the kid failing that class and now blaming calculus for it.

[@RR-ds4sd]

@@B2Dtwo as a matter of fact, I do understand how the data science algorithms work. As long as a piece of information is original enough, there's no way for a current AI bot, to guess the following words, in a way other than the original. To prevent plagiarism accusations, it will make some changes. Try it for yourself, ChatGPT at times simply reproduces the top results from google for certain very specific questions.

[@sivaones]

We’ll see how soon. I asked ChatGPT to write a song in the style of Nirvana and it was awful.

[@storyspinner3080]

The more artistic writing cannot be emulated by any AI and that would be sorely missed in entertainment.

[@chuckysmaria6466]

Why would they be missed? Artist with actual talent will not be replaced by AI. It's the crappy artists that are in danger of being outperformed by AI.

[@storyspinner3080]

@@chuckysmaria6466 We'll see. I'm not as optimistic as you are, apparently.

[@chuckysmaria6466]

@@storyspinner3080 It's not about optimism. I agree with you artistic writing cannot be emulated by any AI available today. The reason AI is on the table is because cr@ppy writers are the one's being threatened. These so-called "writers" are like "modern artist" that produces Cr@p art used by money launders and those who want to pay less tax.

[@jmipraimundo]

​@@chuckysmaria6466If you listen electronic music its not made by a person 😅

[@jmipraimundo]

​​@@chuckysmaria6466orst they will burn hollywood like streams wanna 😂 They talk so much about intelligence but they understand business like children... Stay focused on the written AI that big comppanies are paying to developing a technology to read minds with AI 😊 Europe already makes restrictions for this...

[@StudioInvisible]

3:03 I think he is trying to convince himself; this technology might actually be better at replacing managers than actual writers, by providing relevant insight (rather than bad notes), keeping on track with objectives, assess cost and time when couse correcting, etc. They are trying to impose a vision that would replace creative and not them, but the opposite actually makes more sense.

[@trappedinamerica7740]

AI lacks creativity and compassion? Sounds like a corporate executive

[@tomahawkchunker]

Remember when they told us automation would replace all of the jobs we didn't want to do? Children are boiling fries while jobs for artists, writers, musicians, models, and actors are being replaced. What's left? Athletes? Just you wait.

[@jonsturgill8868]

Robots could make baseball more exciting.

[@vincentbaca790]

"Just you wait Henry Higgins, er, Athletes who make millions, just you wait!" Audrey Hepburn....

[@MarfelsLifel]

WHERE ARE OUR LAWMAKERS???? There is exactly 1 law pertaining to AI in California?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[@oolong2]

I don't think she was saying that the AI would create the premise. She was saying that once you have a premise you can have AI create a rudimentary script as a "starting point".

[@joshsmyth130]

Wouldn't Ai and machine learning be excellent in replacing executives

[@victoriascholl4607]

I am a senior and four of the jobs I had when I was younger have been automated and are gone. They didn't create new jobs that gave the people laid off a new job!! people had to keep reinventing themselves to survive. Most large cities have large amounts of homeless people who aren't being offered new training to help them get work. Maybe when riots start up because these people have nothing left to loose corporate America will realize they are destroying our country. We have all seem how shoplifting has become normal in many cities.

[@courtneybrown6204]

I am so with you on this! My job too. And all they do is kick you to the curb, no chance for retraining. I don't think these young folks really know what they are up against because they think it will be easy to reinvent but it's not! No one will give you a loan to go back to school at 50 years old but we are still expected to work until 67+.

[@vincentbaca790]

Look, soon we will only allowed to be thirty, like in Logan's Run...

[@bjasmine]

What we are calling "Artificial Intelligence" right now is in fact "Virtual" intelligence. It's not self-aware. All it does is pattern-match.

[@jmipraimundo]

Because for some people computers think 😅 but it was with our information 😊

[@B2Dtwo]

​@@jmipraimundo If I ask you what's 1032 divided by 18, tell me the answer without thinking. Now, does my calculator think? What is "our" information? Is the information you obtained from this video yours? Or is it Cenk's? Or does Ramesh own what he said but not what Cenk said? Does anyone who watches the video own the information it contains? If not, how much information in your head do you actually own? Is all of it yours? Theoretically almost none of it can be?

[@kmlund42]

Why this is being unleashed without any care for humans is astounding.

[@9000ck]

It's human nature; greed and apathy. We are simple creatures and probably deserve our fate.

[@vincentbaca790]

What's astounding is that I can't get a Hal-9000 t -shirt...

[@johnchricton6470]

Maybe the AI will stop making the boring movies that nobody watches that win the awards at the Oscars.

[@manwii97]

So is it still plagiarism if I use an AI to write a movie or song? That's kinda what it sounds like Hollywood might do here soon.

[@AvangionQ]

Generalized AI is coming within the next two decades to take away half of all jobs. Whether the people thrive or starve will be determined by who owns the machines. Universal Dividends is a concept that needs to be expanded upon and made viral.

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

The cliche about starving artists XD

[@AvangionQ]

@@UniqueBreakfastTaco Have you seen what AI can do with creating art in a matter of minutes? Search: Craiyon ... or ... Night Cafe

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

@@AvangionQ I guess they should learn to code.

[@AvangionQ]

@@UniqueBreakfastTaco So your answer is indifference to the loss of art and culture. How sad the internet must be to have someone like you trolling here.

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

@@AvangionQ there's no art or culture being lost. These are cultural vampires being paid to create absolute garbage that will be forgotten in a few short years.

[@monstaro19]

How could anyone even sue A.i for intellectual theft

[@RobertFalconer1967]

The US Copyright Office has already ruled that images and literary work generated by A.I. using large language models trained on public data sets cannot be copyrighted. If such work cannot be copyrighted, it cannot be protected, meaning they don't really own the IP, which means there goes things like merchandising, for example. That's just the first of a litany of pitfalls-far too lengthy to detail here-that A.I. will present for large, corporate IP creators. Were I advising Mr. Lieberman, I would recommend he employ some lateral thinking and ruminate very carefully on all of this before embracing A.I., for he may rue the day he lets it in the building...should he actually elect to do so.

[@rick.r]

Show the executives how AI can replace them as well and they'll put an end to it pretty quickly.

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

Until the A I. suddenly decides it wants to be in charge.

[@taneishar1994]

That is very f*** around and find out

[@jackied962]

How would they put an end to it?

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

@@jackied962 "3 billion human lives ended on (insert date in near future here). The survivors called the war Judgement Day. They lived only to face a NEW nightmare...the war against the machines."

[@Furiends]

Speaking of AI, Ramesh's points seem to "go off script" a little bit probably because there isn't really a coherent overall message about the subject which is what we actually need for AI. I think Ramesh is more thinking about the details and has really good intuition but isn't using "big picture" thinking when he says this stuff. But his conclusion: "As new technologies create new innovation we need to create mechanisms for everyone to benefit from them" is awesome and clearly why we all consider Ramesh a progressive. There has been various ideas that have been floated about people owning their data and thus being compensated when it's used for AI like this. But for one this is obviously very capitalist. It's also not going to work because the whole reason why capitalists win isn't just "mining natural resources" like our personal info but being in a position to exploit asymmetric knowledge. You'd have no idea what the value of your personal data is why massive tech firms would. You'd always be getting low ball offers for your data. So the only correct way of dealing with this is for the intention to be that our data being applied to datasets is not accessible paid for or not. Instead any data we contribute to an AI would be voluntary and explicit in the pursuit of creating a system with intentional outcomes. Instead of a "data market" that would be a disaster (albeit a better one than the current disaster) we should be intentionally creating the data for these systems and all have input on it. THAT should be compensated. You might pay a bunch of contributors to tag photos, those photos get analyzed for systemic bias of their contributors, the sample is filtered for the specific task we want the AI to do. All of those things would be things that can be compensated. The resulting dataset is used for an AI. Inconspicuous involuntary arbitrary data collection should be banned and we don't want to continue economically incentivizing it.

[@Liz-wz8dh]

If the studios go to automating everything with AI, I probably will avoid watching movies by the studios at that point. It might be fun for a couple of movies but after a while, I am probably not going to be that interested. I like the stories behind how the movies get made, how the artists created the content, etc. If none of that exists, it's just another movie for me. Also, if the studios can automate everything with AI, then that technology will probably also be largely available to the public as well so the studios will have a lot of competition.

[@AnitaLife27]

I was messing with ChatGPT to write some fan fiction. It was hysterically bad. But it did have a beginning, middle, end, and hit all the paint by numbers thing that Hollywood already uses. It gave me a framework, some ideas, so it has its place. The writers and real creators are still needed.

[@B2Dtwo]

The first Mac computer had 128 K of memory. That's where AI is today. Just wait.

[@AMortalDefiant]

I have to disagree with John's point about the "idea" being the main thing (even as someone who writes music, stories, and is working on a video game). Ideas are a dime a dozen. Even the most mind-blowing concept you see has been thought of before - it is special because of the IMPLEMENTATION. Brandon Sanderson talks about this a lot in his writing courses. It's a tough pill to swallow for creatives, but the "idea" is possibly the *LEAST* important part. A well-implemented 'meh' idea will get seen by people. A not-at-all-acted-on 'great' idea is seen by no one. Most of our ideas are things we "kit-bash" from our daily lives; it's not some holy thing many make it out to be. I'm not saying the writers aren't underappreciated/underpaid. They do a great, useful service, but it's not the creation of the idea that is the main contribution to what they do. They refine the idea, and streamline it.

[@Danielle-zq7kb]

I mostly agree - at least until your last sentence: the creative process is in the implementation and execution of the idea. Your last sentence seems to refer to editing: refining and streamlining.

[@hillbilly403]

Without the initial idea, there is no implementation.

[@B2Dtwo]

Exactly. Where do these people think ideas come from in the first place? Ideas are just new formulations of connections made by your brain associations. Which is why GPT's ideas will be killer. It works the same way but with an unimaginably larger set of connections. Brains aren't magic.

[@MISTAJZA]

Similar to how the FDA is supposed to assess harmfulness of foods or drugs, there needs to be some kind of “Emerging Technologies Administration” that assesses whether new technology can be harmful.

[@jimkirby1799]

This is part and parcel of what happens when technology replaces humans in the workplace , with no thought of how to deal, and prepare the human employees for their pending unemployment. Cheaper is not always better.

[@daarianaharis]

I think you misunderstood the "Anyone can come up with a premise"-quote. It was meant to be the precursor to the actual statement: Anyone can come up with a premise (as anyone can today; ideas are not limited to writers), but through AI they have a starting point (i.e. they no longer need to be a writer and know how to write - AI will put the premise into a script). So what he means is: we won't need writers, just people coming up with ideas and script editors to check if the AI written script is viable.

[@LerockJohn]

AI is great for a first draft. Then you tweek it with human intervention.

[@orlock20]

AI already has a starting point in all fields of movie making and TV shows that is accessible to anybody with the internet. AI is going to replace the studios as well as the writers. People are going to be making home shows and movies just by typing in a sentence or two.

[@B2Dtwo]

Exactly. The writers are concerned about scripts. How quaint. Do they not understand moviemaking as they know it is sort of like creating a newspaper by lining up little steel letter stamps one by one on a big press to spray with ink.

[@HostileRespite]

They'll never be able to avoid AI.

[@houston356]

Glad South Park are in-house and never sold out.

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

In 500 years from now, the highest grossing and award-winning movie of the year will be 2 hours of a camera focused on a butt farting non-stop, simply titled "Ass." (Thumbs up to anyone who gets that reference.)

[@ChaoticMarinMusic]

I hate how relevant that movie is right now.

[@pattressel3864]

Thanks to Ramesh for pointing out that this is not AI. GPT-3 is not making decisions out of the blue, not acting independently, is not sentient. Thanks to John for highlighting the importance of concept creation and the actual writing. Recently, I saw an article about "all" the science fiction about an object striking the Earth. I kept waiting for the article to mention any *books*. Nope, all movies. But books on the topic long predate any movies about it, and some movies were even dissed for seeming to borrow from books without attribution.

[@B2Dtwo]

Concept creation? AI will come up with concepts that far surpass anything humans have written. You'll see soon enough.

[@derekmeza2882]

The citizens will be just as complacent and messy as the people shown in Wall-e.

[@PatThePerson]

One thing I hate is voice systems that go “talk to me as you would a human” Me: No sweetie if I did that you would instantly get confused, you still need keywords like a machine. AI: I didn’t get that, just tell me what you need Me: told you so Most phone prompts just try to filter out people trying to do things they can do with an app or webpage. I’m one of those who know when I need a human on their side to do something for me.

[@cecilia_mackie]

Wow! Love it! Let’s stay in touch!

[@dustyhurd424]

So it sounds like he wants to basically just make sure the writers still get a paycheck for being the ones that push the 'make script now' button.

[@Kim-by5uy]

The executives should be replaced with AI

[@annagettings4675]

The whole idea of writers, and it'll be journalists too eventually, being replaced with AI leads to the same problems as self checkouts. It takes jobs away from people with zero responsibility corporations to help them. Also, human interaction, conversations, discussion gets less and less, understanding each other nearly zero. Do you know what that creates? KARENS! Run away, run away!

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

Oh noes. Anyway...

[@vincentbaca790]

Uh, is that my 📱 phone?

[@tbabbittt]

We can't continue on the system we're on it is terminal to us. This notion of a fictitious threat by AI in the future is a distraction at best.

[@brianbassett4379]

Writers want an AI block to save their jobs? Should we also block autonomous trucks and vehicles to save drivers' jobs? Should we still be riding in human-operated elevators? Society should forego automation in factories and warehouse storage/shipping too? If writers would have been writing anything worthwhile over the last decade they would have been earning an actual living. Perhaps people are tired of remake after remake and cheesy alternate-universe plotlines. Relying on AI to write scripts and plots may just give movie and television viewers some new and _interesting_ to watch... for a change. Technology marches on and it will continue to march over the top of the most easily replaced human activities regardless of how much they whine while it happens.

[@KyleCorvus]

Oof. So basically this new “AI” is just another way to mine humans of any resource possible. Collect data, create product, monetize, repeat.

[@vincentbaca790]

And, your point?

[@KyleCorvus]

@@vincentbaca790 My point is we live in a shitty society that only values people as consumers and will never care about quality of life

[@SalinaBabba8343]

Has a single one of these "brilliant" executives ever thought about a future where no one is able to buy their overpriced shit?

[@adamk5937]

Has doubling down on being human ever happened before? Unfortunately, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and that's the basis of humanity now and in our history. People need to come together as political forces and form labor and political unions, which in the past century gave us the American Middle Class. If the writers, directors, actors, techs, and smaller production companies came together, which looks like it's happening right now, they could save the creative art of film making. Do we really need another Disney princess made up of millions of parts of the previous Disney princesses?

[@ZerqTM]

executives would be easier to automate :p and they cost way more

[@maxfieldstanton4541]

10:20 The only award I ever care about from the Oscars is Best Screenplay. Every single winner is always an absolutely amazing film. I'm biased, though, because I'm a screen writing nerd. I watch film like people read books... because I analyze the writing of it. So, I'm your huckleberry, I suppose lol

[@Danielle-zq7kb]

The executives could totally be replaced. AI sounds like the final nail in TV’s coffin.

[@bencerwinske559]

Well said Ramesh. Not really short, but we'll said 🙂.

[@Furiends]

For everyone engaging with this story lets be very clear it doesn't matter what AI actually does. Executives benefit from workers thinking AI will replace them. They CEO of Mc Donalds made the exact same threat during fight for 15. Claiming robot arms was just around the corner and would replace them all anyway. Did that happen? no. Doesn't mean it couldn't happen with AI but the point is these executives have no idea.

[@parasitelights3158]

But these two are largely different. Effective "robotic arms" have been around for decades, but they have yet to fully replace low-wage manual labor for the simple reason that they are very expensive to manufacture and maintain, and so far only have application in areas where it is economically worth the effort and cost, such as car manufacturing where a single very expensive "robot" replaces dozens of workers and at the same time is dozens of times more efficient - faster, stronger, better quality and does not suffer from distraction, fatigue or fatal mistake and produces a product that costs tens of thousands of dollars. In comparison, generative AI is a fact, at the moment you can literally for free, in seconds, generate any text, drawing, write a script for you, translate for you from and to dozens of languages ​​with completely acceptable quality and what not, taking into account the fact, that what we have access to is in its primary form. Improved versions come online monthly and who knows what is currently in the labs that we have not even heard of because the companies have no financial incentive to release it to the public. Moreover, judging by the already real examples, be sure that in the near future the answer to the problem with "robotic arms" will also be answered through the already existing generative AI. So they've already discovered a completely new antibiotic concept that defies any reasonable "human" logic thanks to a strictly specific version of their commercial product, and what's left for a fundamentally simpler problem like the economical implementation of a robotic fast-breakfast system? It's just that the answer to this question is not on the agenda yet, and you can be completely sure that "these executives" have a very good idea.

[@Furiends]

@@parasitelights3158 Your entire argument rests on glossy over optimism. Further "generative AI is a fact, at the moment you can literally for free, in seconds, generate any text, drawing, write a script for you" isn't even close to the truth. This is only true in a purely fungible sense. It's be more accurate to say this generative AI that's free for the moment (because its free marketing for them and creating the market for their product) is able to create valuable things at the moment. Not the creative thing or that creative thing but a creative thing which can be more or less determined in the statement: can be described as the combination of any two other things. It's able to create believable things not accurate things. So it's natural to say early adopters will have a lot of success right now using it to create new value. Then they'll be the pile on effect of it being way more capiable than it actually is so managers anticipate they can replace labor with it and will do so. Certainly if entire businesses can destroy themselves by firing everyone important because they "cost to much" in a restructuring then the same can happen with AI. Then we'll reach peak enthusiasm before quickly realizing humans stop contributing their creativity to the machine and safe guard it or not produce it at all. In a few decades we all realize AI hasn't come up with a single new idea.

[@B2Dtwo]

@@Furiends AI hasn't come up with a single new idea? Are you nuts? It's given me several. Have you ever asked it for new ideas regarding a specific problem or task? I know what you're going to say. That it was provided with those ideas from some other piece of content need to train it. But that's not true. It doesn't have any access to the content anymore, and that content is not stored in its memory...

[@Furiends]

@@B2Dtwo Work on your reading comprehension? Are you an AI? :P

[@B2Dtwo]

@@Furiends First to go at McDonalds will be the order takers and cashiers. Customers prefer a screen anyways. The ones at Wendy's are great. You seem to think humans are pretty special. Human creativity is basically pattern recognition with a mood filter. AI will astound you with its creativity,. AI will have its own ideas because it knows more about humanity than a human is even capable of knowing. AI is like satellite photography; it sees the forrest, the planet, the beginning of time, whereas, humankind are prehistoric by comparison, on the ground and barely capable of climbing a tree.

[@TheMward72]

Boy. Do we ever gain respect every time there is a writers' strike and Hollywood churns out "reality" tv that just highlights how shit they are at producing quality entertainment.

[@coachd1433]

Movies and TV are dead. I teach high school kids. They do not watch TV or go to movies. They swipe and flick and watch 20 second memes. That's the 'future' of entertainment. Now -- the writers should get a taste of whatever they create in that world, but even without Ai, let's acknowledge that the classic format of Hollywood is quickly dying...

[@_B.C_]

This 👆

[@gregizewhigham6159]

Yes I barely watch tv at all unless it’s a major hit and talked about through apps etc or word of mouth like Stranger Things or Wednesday otherwise I don’t care for tv at all a waste of time. With the most predictable plots a mile away.

[@michaelsheehan7316]

I mean....Walmart workers didnt get a bill passed protecting them from machines putting them out of work.

[@IhaytFukkingsocialmedia]

huh

[@houston356]

Actors should then boycott any movie written by AI

[@scottcoon232]

It's not AI ... It's automated plagiarism

[@zoeherriot]

It really isn't. There are plenty of ways to train AI that does not fall foul of any copyright issues. The problem is the tech is now out there, and proven. So yeah, it is coming, and it can be created avoiding plagiarism.

[@ZerqTM]

I bet AIs could replace CEO's lets look into that...

[@chuckluvsmusic2much]

A Chinese company called Netdragon Websoft named an AI as its CEO in August 2022.

[@tonylmn]

How are the creative people replaceable but business people aren't? 🤔

[@trappedinamerica7740]

The only reason they aren’t is because they decide who to fire. But yeah an AI could replace them too.

[@mikesdead365]

AI is not real AI.

[@captain_context9991]

Movie and TV writers on strike.................. You would think they had more elaborate posters.

[@jakehays5475]

The writers do. They just picked a lame one.

[@grantsmith1315]

INCREDIBLE!

[@ariesista]

Because of the pandemic, I quit my career to become a writer. As a person of color I’m concerned about book banning and now this. I hope I’m creative enough! Wow!

[@Danielle-zq7kb]

I’m sure you are. Join a supportive writer’s community. For mysteries and thrillers, there is Sisters in Crime (they also accept men and non-binary etc), Mystery Writers of America, and Crime Writers of Color. If you are writing in a different genre, look for similar organizations

[@YTPrenewed]

Any time workers try to stand up for themselves, rich people use "tech could make you obsolete" as a threat. Do you always use the technologies we already have? Do you trust the self-check-out kiosks at stores? Do you trust the self-check-IN kiosks at airports? If we don't trust the most recent tech advances on the consumer's side anyway, why should we kowtow to it when it's used as a threat against the workers?

[@johnsayles8032]

"But we executives are irreplaceable" 😅 Investors and shareholders will absolutely give human execs the boot if it churns out cash somewhere. It saves on multimillion dollar salaries, and is far less likely to end up saying anything racist or sexually assault lower staff. And gives them even more separation from the companies actions if they fire over half the staff.

[@johngordon2929]

If they write for late night comics dont pay them they are not doing their jobs

[@charlotteinnocent8752]

Those scripts will be crap if written by AI so we're all going to be watching BBC because nothing good will be coming out of Hollywood at all.

[@vincentbaca790]

What about Benny Hill and Falty Towers reruns?

[@imaginaryfriend4512]

Most movies releasing right now are pretty formulaic as is... would it be that different if they were written by AI?

[@surlyguvna]

Maybe Americans can request that AI take over CEOs, movie studio executives, Hedge fund managers and Judgeships jobs? Best benefit, AI's do not need Cayman bank accounts, BIG Tax breaks, Golden parachutes, pensions, health care or to engage in unethical behavior! Just a thought.

[@31webseries]

Scripts by nothing but AIs and studio execs?? Oh those’ll be great. 🙄

[@googm]

That's pretty much all you need to continue spitting out the only cinema that actually makes money these days. Execs know full well they could build a custom GPT model on the Star Wars lore or whatever, and pretty much make 1,000 spin offs of equal narrative quality to every Star Wars movie after George Lucas. You could argue that the human writers are doing this anyway (Episode 7 very similar to Episode 4).

[@B2Dtwo]

Me thinks writers have a hugely inflated sense of their own self importance. This guy in the interview is Exhibit A.

[@31webseries]

@@B2Dtwo Writers are essential, they create the stories, the worlds, the characters, their relationships, everything. Honestly their sense of importance is pretty spot on.

[@B2Dtwo]

​@@31webseries Not essential anymore. AI can create better stories better worlds, better characters, better relationships, better everything. AI is about to make writers as useful as the workers who would line up the letter type for newspaper presses. In other words, no longer needed.

[@31webseries]

@@B2Dtwo Calm down man. It’s not that advanced. These programs are versatile but they don’t create they borrow. The writers are trying to protect their original work from being ‘borrowed’ from.

[@nookgod8058]

My question is as a cs student is, will it ever be possible for AI to be creative or to care about something? Using reinforcement learning seems to simulate what caring is as an ai agent tries to prioritize maximizing a given value.

[@stevep8490]

Calling AI nothing more than pattern recognition, while accurate lol, is giving too much credit to humans.

[@StuartLoria]

The issue here is people giving their data away for free. Data is where is at, ask compensation for your data and that will be your new job. an AI without a huge volume of data is useless, but people don’t get it, they are complaining for the wrong thing

[@RR-ds4sd]

Spot on. AI is only spitting back the info it has scraped before. ChatGPT at times just change words from entire webpages, and people get all impressed. Good old plagiarism with new clothing.

[@jmipraimundo]

​@@RR-ds4sdYes and in the past You had books that you change the enemy and say thats ours. Who know that the most anti semitism book its a Book againt monters in Roman gods 😊 But Nazis change too Judes 😮

[@quackcement]

Hollywood has become predictable with play it safe writing ultra reliant on special effects to tell a story. its not the writers fault , they are instructed to do that. Something like black mirror has more creative story telling then most big budget movies that are forgettable.

[@trappedinamerica7740]

That’s capitalisms fault. They don’t want to take risks

[@quackcement]

@@trappedinamerica7740 yet not taking risks becomes a risk after a while. Try selling non unique products. Then the only avenue is to compete on price.

[@Erulin68]

Movies are an colleborative art form like much like Architecture. With the writers being the architects and all the people around them the builders that bring the architects vision to life. And of course they should be honored because without them we wouldn't have cathedrals or movies/tv shows.

[@9000ck]

People won't act until AI comes for them.

[@ruminator3570]

I believe it's a fair point recognize that AI poses a danger two people who engage in creative tasks. The technology should not be used to take food out of people's mouths or rob such people of their purpose, passion and spirit. Theoretical physicist michio kaku said we don't weep for the people who drive the horse and buggy now that we have automobiles and other forms of transportation. Obviously artists and writers not the people driving horse and buggies. The technologies are supposed to make people more free not less.

[@joe41040]

I know it's gonna happen, I'm just never going to watch it

[@dfk09]

There needs to be an AI system to replace executives!

[@UniqueBreakfastTaco]

Commies big mad XD

[@vincentbaca790]

Remember Veger from Star Trek?

[@josephhawley5363]

As a truck driver... It will take a bit of time for anything to be replaced in the feild fully even if they have ai unless they change insurance laws real fast i mean a technical error in a truck now os still blamed on truck drivers... At least sofar as long range transportation.

[@orlock20]

Let's see AI take on a logging roads, cash only areas, hostile customers and obvious fraud and illegal drug shipments.

[@anthonypena3322]

Me as a soon to be computer scientist agree. We do not learn much outside of technology

[@courtneybrown6204]

Your job will also soon be obsolete. Hopefully you will have paid off your student debt before you can't find a job anymore. I'm already obsolete so I have nothing but sympathy.

[@emjai2122]

AI (right now) isn’t AGI but we’re going to get there in the next decade…probably much sooner.

[@sreedharanbaskaradass9896]

It doesn’t matter if it’s AI generated or written by a person, just make good shows.

[@trappedinamerica7740]

I’m sure your favorite show is a bad one to some people.

[@RR-ds4sd]

I say let's give AI a try. If what's being filmed today is written by humans, there's plenty of room to improve.

[@sreedharanbaskaradass9896]

@@RR-ds4sd Agreed. Good to have options.

[@rebeccakesner9840]

If Writers Want To Stay Relevant Then They Have To Come Up With New Ideas And Quit Spitting Out The Same Old Boring Stuff Audiences Want Fresh Ideas Not Old Ones!

[@Jen-cc9xk]

Didn't you listen to this guy? AI can't come up with "new ideas", it can only replicate and rehash existing patterns. It's executives now who stomp on "new ideas" from humans because they want to make money, so they go for the safe option that has worked before.

[@vincentbaca790]

Not just for TV, but for short stories and novels in general....

[@chriss-nf1bd]

If we made it against the law to buy, sell, trade, gift or transfer any personal information. AI systems like this couldn't exist in a legal way... Or require compensation for each data point that is you or your activity. Could make it to expensive to use. Hell I am waiting for the phone company to enforce or buffer through the national do not call list. So I do not suffer the dozen or so calls daily from scam artist, healthcare insurance sales calls, and someone trying to get me to buy a car warranty and lets not forget the ghost calls where there isn't anything but silence from a number that isn't in service. All generated from AI...

[@herringstheseries]

I uploaded the 1st act of my screenplay to ChatGPT and it actually wrote a good 2nd act. Be worried.

[@robertdouble559]

The T in GPT stands for TRANSFORMER. It transforms existing text information from a massive database into new text information based on user prompts. Often with zero regards for accuracy. It'll improve though.

[@stevep8490]

Oh no, Chat GPT is trans?????

[@johnc3525]

I beg to differ. I think executives will also be quickly replaced. An AI will do a much better job assessing the market and what movie to make than humans to increase profit.

[@Liz-wz8dh]

Let's hope.

[@The_Deal]

I agree with the guest here. Cenk was too balanced and optimistic. The fact is, its not just writing thats in jeopardy. Modeling, art schools, accounting, engineering, etc will be affected by this. There should be worldwide movements in every workplace, and directed to every corporation to protect jobs. It really comes down to what the guest said, evaluating our intrinsic value, our human dignity and intellectual output on this Earth. We have to set limits to this technology, rather than working around it. The future of humanity depends on this very notion that all form of jobs must be accessible and available and not held hostage by technology. I just hope we will finally have FDR’s second bill of rights implemented sooner rather than later.