AI in Hollywood Has Gone From Contract Sticking Point to Existential Crisis
As the strikes grind on, actors and writers are worried about technology encroaching on their jobs.
Adam Conover started to worry a few months ago that a computer could take his job. A comedian in Los Angeles, Conover created and starred in the TV show Adam Ruins Everything, and he serves on the negotiating committee of the Writers Guild of America, the union that represents Hollywood screenwriters. When the WGA entered contract negotiations with the studios earlier this year, Conover and his peers were focused on securing pay increases from streaming services they felt had devalued their work. Artificial intelligence was an afterthought or, at the very most, a lesser threat. But that changed when the studios declined to establish any rules limiting AI’s use.