Love, Hate, and Lawsuits: AI Is Causing Chaos
Written by Esther Smith
AI – it’s a buzzword for recent tech developments and the label is slapped onto every latest update. It seems like I can’t scroll through websites and social media without seeing the shiny, new toy. The future is here.
The new obsession is sweeping through every industry: email servers are using it to increase efficiency, Adobe is incorporating it into Creative Cloud apps, and university students are using it for their essays (while others are being falsely accused) just to name a few examples. How could we forget the infamous Willy Wonka Experience; where AI was used to generate the marketing materials and script. It is everywhere.
Focusing on the film industry, we’ve seen new AI developments which promise to change the industry landscape. But how? And where does it all come from? AI is everywhere and I’ll be looking at just a snapshot when it comes to AI in screenwriting.
The Industry’s Reaction To A.I.
AI’s impact on the film industry came to the forefront in 2023, when WGA members held their second-longest strike in history: 148 days. Among their list of demands, AI took a priority. In short: they wanted to have their jobs protected from Artificial Intelligence input.
It’s not just writing that AI has threatened: also in 2023, SAG-AFTRA held a strike alongside WGA where the topic of AI became a main negotiation point. Scarlett Johansson was outraged after OpenAI used an “eerily similar voice” to hers for their system after she chose not to lend her voice to the system.
In the film festival sector, AI is making itself known. When submitting on FilmFreeway, PÖFF Shorts (Black Night Film Festival) require you to answer a question before submitting: “Has your film been made, partially or fully, with the help of Al tools?”. In January this year, Sundance Film Festival screened a small selection of films which had assistance from AI. In one interactive film screening, an audience member was removed after protesting the software, staging a walkout from other audience members.
Over the pond, The Prince Charles cinema in London’s public screening of The Last Screenwriter, a film that explores how AI impacts screenwriters, was cancelled when it turned out that film’s script was written by AI.The irony was not lost and the outrage was very high. However, director Peter Luisi says the reaction is a misunderstanding, and he will be releasing the film online for free, along with the screenplay for people to read about the process. Luisi is also on the protestors side, “It definitely is a threat. I feel that myself”.
However, it’s not all torches and pitchforks – there are some companies in the industry who are welcoming AI: Runway AI Film Festival in New York City & Los Angeles celebrates art and artists for “embracing new and emerging AI techniques for filmmaking”. 20th Century Fox has been using AI to analyse film trailers. ScriptBook is a tool that will analyse film scripts for financial statistics and target demographics – and if you take a look at their portfolio, it’s clear the service is well-used.
On top of this, I’ve also talked with industry professionals to get their perspective on the matter – you can read what they’ve said here.
A.I. Creation and Intellectual Properties
Looking from an outside perspective, Artificial Intelligence seems like a product from the future; straight from a Sci-Fi film and not long until we’re welcoming robot assistants into our homes.
But for artificial intelligence to form its own thoughts, it’s got to have something to base everything off. Enter: Data Harvesting.
According to Builtin, “AI systems learn how to do so by processing massive amounts of data and looking for patterns to model in their own decision-making”. By providing systems with pre-existing content, the technology can analyse it and therefore, pick pieces here and there to create entirely new content – kind of like building a brand new car using old car parts.
This has angered a lot of creatives, as they argue that AI is “stealing” their content and could threaten their jobs in the future. Meanwhile, Ian B. Crosby fears this move could drive creatives away as “human creativity is necessary for training these models” – and it’s already started to happen. According to KQED, students at Milpitas High School in California are concerned AI may have an impact on their creative careers.
The University of Chicago has invented Glaze, a model which can trick AI systems when they are training –– protecting the art from machines while not being impacted to the human eye. Glaze is only intended for visual art, so while it does not apply for screenwriting, we can see steps are being taken to combat AI training.
Social media sites are also giving the users to opt out of their data being used for machine learning as they are automatically opted-in to the service. However, users in the U.S. are not given this option, instead having to make their account private to stop their data being used.
How does this shape up in cases of copyright?
The short answer is: no-one knows just yet. There are multiple lawsuits open right now regarding the use of AI. Nearly all of the cases share the same complaint: they’re stealing from existing material. The software being fairly new and the lightning-speed progress it’s making means these cases are being opened quicker than closing them. It might be some time before we see the results of these cases, and the overall impact it’ll have on the technology.
What we do know is that according to the U.S. Copyright Office in 2023, changes were made for requirements when applying for copyright using AI generated content: there needs to be “sufficient human authorship to support a copyright claim”. In other words: the human needs to tweak the generated material enough to result in a human created work, and therefore, copyright protection.
What Do I Think?
Personally, I’m quite wary of it all: we need to make sure we’re able to adapt to technological advances and if this is the beginning of AI in the film industry, it’s going to be interesting to see the future holds. However, if this results in stolen content and job losses – what exactly are we cheering for?
Is AI poisoning our water supply and burning our crops? Well, no –– but job industries are delicate ecosystems and change does result in loss of jobs; self-checkouts saw supermarket employees drop by 75,000. Replacing humans with machines has been done before and resulted in job losses and the same could be said for AI: it has opened up a whole new world of possibilities within the film industry, but unfortunately this is bound to result in people losing their jobs.
While the world is figuring out how this technology will change our lives, I’ll go back to watching TikToks of Spongebob characters and their AI generated songs – the way the software was intended to be used.
