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- 1 The 146-day-long strike finally ended with a tentative agreement on the use of AI in film and TV writing.
- 2 Three-year deals ended the longest strikes of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
A report from the Los Angeles Times on Sunday came up with a big relief for the American entertainment industry. The longest strike by the WGA and AMPTP for the use of AI for film and TV writing finally ended on Sunday, 24 September. The strike had a hostile impact on Hollywood and was one of the most significant strikes in the history of the Guild.
What is the Strike About?
The WGA East, a labor union accountable for writing and creating content for television, motion pictures, digital media, and news, was on a long strike. The strike was about the use of Artificial Intelligence, the emerging technology for scriptwriting.
What was the strike actually about?
Regulating the use of AI in the film and Television industry, mainly for script writing is the main ground for the strike. The members of WGA do not expect to include AI for script writing whereas, AMPTP is in favor of AI and wants more leeway to do practicals with the emerging technology. The ongoing debate simply boomed concerns for scriptwriters, creating higher chances of WGA members getting replaced by advanced technology. “AI is about to replace human creativity as the technology is not writing, it’s scraping individual’s work”, a statement came out from WGA’s team. As per the team’s perspectives, the use of AI in script writing will only deliver plagiarized and AI-generated content and nothing else.
AMPTP or Hollywood Studio, on the other hand, is in complete favor of AI, arguing that AI can be one of the efficient collaborative tools for writers. AI is all about aiding writers, intensifying the script’s quality, and is not going to replace them entirely. As a result, WGA’s team was on strike for a long time. The debate took place for more than 140 days, ending on Sunday, 24 September 2023.
Why Did the Studios and Writers Guild Agree?
According to the Los Angeles Times, the strike and debate between WGA’s team and AMPTP finally ended on Sunday. A three-year tentative agreement was signed between both parties over the ongoing debate. However, the agreement still needs a rectification by the WGA’s 11,500 members.
The strike began when the previous WGA contract expired without any new deal happening. The impact of the strike was experienced in film and TV production including high-demand movies and shows. A decline of 29% in the second quarter in the Los Angeles filming industry is observed, as per the data of FilmLA, a non-profit firm. The postponement of the megahit, Stranger Things by Nexflix, depicts the impact of the strike on the entertainment industry.
It was expected that the writers would agree to the contract to recover the losses. However, recovering losses of lost wages and production delays won’t happen overnight and requires sufficient time.
Conclusion
The ongoing debate between WGA and AMPTP reached a tentative deal to end the strike and return to work. The deal is expected to be completed based on the rectification by the WGA’s 11,500 members.
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