Tiffany LiWGA is bargaining to block use of their written work to train AI. (ht @harikunzru)
This is a smart move. Brief 🧵:
Generally, writers do not retain copyright for scripts written for or bought by production companies. Which means those companies have the right to do what they want with the written work. Including, potentially, using the works to train AI.
Companies can train AI on work written by writers in a way that allows them to generate written output that sounds similar to what a writer would’ve written. When this gets efficient and effective enough, expect companies to try to eliminate writing jobs altogether...
We've already seen tons of examples of of AI-generated writing, art, and music made to sound or look similar to known human creators.
(Honestly IMO the tech is not quite there yet. Often what you get is a pale imitation. But tech is always improving!)
Ben Jacobsen@tiffanycli I agree with this, but increasingly I suspect that companies won't actually wait for that tipping point. Bots don't go on strike or blow the whistle - that's worth losing a bit of profit from lower quality.
So yeah, definitely smart of the writer's guild to get started early.