Sean Thomas Sean Thomas

Writers will lose to AI

A writer mans the Writers Guild of America picket line in front of Netflix's HQ in Hollywood, California (Credit: Getty images)

It’s a cliché of publishing that men over the age of 40 only read military history. In my case it’s not entirely true: I still occasionally squeeze in the odd novel, some politics, even poetry if I’ve drunk too much sweet wine. But it’s true enough that my mind is probably over-furnished with historical-military examples, metaphors, and allusions. And for the last week I’ve been trying to find the correct analogy, from the annals of war, to characterise the battle recently joined by the Writers Guild of America.

For anyone that has missed this particular strike, amidst our own melancholy roster of industrial actions, here’s the skinny: as of 2 May 2023 all the screenwriters of the USA, from east coast to west, from gag-smiths to dramaturgists, have downed pencils, pens, laptops, and refused to write a single extra word for ‘the studios’.

Given that screenwriting in America is practically a closed shop – you can’t write for Hollywood unless you’re a member of the WGA – the effects of this stoppage have been instant, and will be impressive. Late night US chat shows – like Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon, which rely on new material generated daily – have already gone dark. If the strike persists, some of your favourite US shows will be affected, halted, even scrapped. The Last of Us, one of the most acclaimed of recent dramas, might have to wait a long time for its much-anticipated second season.  

Writers are insisting that studios barely use AI in any form

In a sometimes frivolous industry, this is a serious development. The last time the writers went on strike like this – in 2007 – many shows badly faltered, and a few never recovered, as the schedules filled up with reality TV (which by definition does not require scripts). One of those new shows was The Celebrity Apprentice, which, in turn, led to the renewed rise of Donald Trump as TV star, and, eventually president of the USA. Yay. Or not.

In short, writers’ strikes are expensive bad news for almost everyone. So why are the scribes manning the picket lines at Paramount? There are various technical, understandable reasons – modern streaming services prefer shorter seasons of eight or ten episodes, compared to the olden days – which equals less money for writers, even as the streaming companies are coining it.

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