Hollywood’s New AI Transparency Proposal to Address Strike

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) published on August 22 the specifics of its proposal for striking actors and writers, which included artificial intelligence (AI) and data transparency standards for the entertainment industry.

A generative AI cannot be designated a writer under the proposed conditions. Therefore, no artificial intelligence-generated content can be considered literary or intellectually protected. The proposal also ensures that content generated by AI will not impact credit, rights, or compensation.

While companies are permitted to use AI-generated scripts as source material, any writer who revises the script will be compensated as if they were the original author.

In addition, any studio or production company pursuing a writer’s assistance in developing an AI-generated script must disclose the script’s origin.

The initial publication of the proposal occurred eleven days ago, on August 11, but lacked substantial information regarding key issues raised by the striking parties.

Along with AI-related revisions, the proposal addresses data transparency issues. Before the proposal, writers rarely had access to the metrics their work produced.

The revised proposal would make audience data accessible to writers and present it in confidential quarterly reports. However, for the time being, only subscription video on demand (SVOD) metrics will be included, not advertising or transactional videos.

The AMPTP proposal suggested that the most recent developments occurred on the 114th day of the strike and were the most recent Hollywood studio iterations of AI incorporation.

“This increased transparency will enable the WGA to develop proposals to restructure the current SVOD residual regime in the future.”

On May 3, they denied the Writers Guild of America’s request to ban AI entirely from the writing chamber. There were also suggestions that background actors should be scanned, compensated for their first day of work, and then allowed corporations ownership of their scan, image, and likeness.

This prompted a backlash from the entertainment industry’s entertainers. Nonetheless, major production companies are attempting to incorporate AI. On July 27, Netflix posted AI-related employment openings with salaries of up to $900,000.