Since the recent coming-out of the artificial intelligence Thanks to the popularization of tools such as Midjourney or the famous Chat-GPT, the debate around it has been marked by fears and uncertainties. Now, after the obvious legal vacuum that has been created in the graphic arts sector, the spotlight has fallen on the world of screenwriting after the surprising proposal of the union of American directors -or WGA-.
The sound of the inevitable
On March 22, the organization issued a regulation proposal according to which artificial intelligences would be allowed to write scripts or participate in their creation as long as it did not affect the allocation of credits or the financial compensation of the scribes. The WGA further explained its vision in a tweet thread compiled on its official account that begins as follows:
“The WGA’s proposal to regulate the use of material produced using artificial intelligence or similar technologies ensures that companies cannot use AI to undermine screenwriters’ work standards, including compensation, residuals, rights and credits.”
The WGA’s proposal to regulate use of material produced using artificial intelligence or similar technologies ensures the Companies can’t use AI to undermine writers’ working standards including compensation, residuals, separated rights and credits. #WGAStrong 🧵1/7
—Writers Guild of America West (@WGAWest) March 22, 2023
The vision of the union goes through classify artificial intelligence as a tool and not as a writerwhich would prevent the developers of the software from entering the fight for the writing credits of a feature film or an episode of a television series, in the same way that Microsoft, for example, is not among the authors of a novel typed in Word .
The key to the matter lies in a concrete fact: that do not consider material generated by an AI as “literary material” —what a screenwriter produces, be it stories, treatments, scripts, or dialogue— or “source material” —the equivalent of novels, magazine articles, or plays adapted for film or television. In fact, according to the WGA, “The AI does not create anything, it generates a regurgitation of what it has previously ingested”.
If the software creation is not tagged in any of these ways, the software cannot be credited as a writer for the project, and the screenwriter would get 100% of the “written by” credit by adapting a short story or a premise created by artificial intelligence; something essential, since the “written by” ensures the collection of 75% of the total residuals of a project.
If you’ve ever listened to Craig Mazin and John August’s ‘Scriptnotes’ podcast—which, as always, I highly recommend—you know that the world of credit, unions, and compensation in American industry is a true labyrinth almost incomprehensible to ordinary mortals, and this only complicates everything even more. However, not everything is decided yet.
The WGA is expected to continue trading for the next two weeks the new terms, and it remains to be seen whether or not the AMPTP, the organization that represents the studios, agrees with the proposal. Be that as it may, We have a few months —and a few years— ahead of us that are especially turbulent that promise to radically change the current labor and creative status quo.
Via | Variety
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