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As the WGA writer’s strike enters its third week, actress and computer scientist Justine Bateman posted a tweet thread detailing how artificial intelligence could disrupt the entertainment industry — and what actors can do to protect themselves.
“AI must be [addressed] now or never. I believe this is the last time a labor action will be effective in our company,” Bateman wrote. “If we don’t make hard rules now, they just won’t notice when we strike in three years’ time, because then they won’t need us.”
Founded in 1954, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) is one of the largest unions in the entertainment industry, with more than 15,000 members. With membership gone, most major productions have ground to a halt.
Best known for playing Mallory Keaton on the 1980s sitcom “Family Ties” alongside Michael J. Fox, Bateman has a degree in computer science and digital media management from UCLA. Bateman also focused on using computer-generated imagery trained on the likenesses and voices of actors that she said could be tripled and quadrupled.
AI Invasion: Hollywood writers strike to save your Netflix from robot takeover
Earlier this month, popular generative AI imaging platform Midjourney released its latest version 5.1, making it easier to create visually stunning images and deep fakes with minimal effort.
Bateman encouraged actors to demand “iron protection” against the use of their image and voice to protect their livelihoods.
“Ask from [the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists] and don’t accept any AMPTP proposal that it doesn’t have,” she wrote.
To prove the point, Bateman shared a tweet from Twitter user and AI blogger Lorenzo Green with a video of what an AI-generated Lord of the Rings from director Wes Anderson would look like.
Here are some visual aids (and they’re probably out of date): https://t.co/SKfZAgLtqk
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) May 14, 2023
Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November, the race to bring AI into the mainstream has alarmed many about AI’s potential takeover of the workforce.
Recognizing the potential threat, the WGA included in its negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers a proposal that blocked the use of AI to write or rewrite literary materials, use them as source material, or train AI. The AMPTP rejected the proposal, the WGA said.
“Training an AI program on an elderly person [hit] TV series, and creating an additional season. Family tiesfor example, has 167 episodes. An AI program could easily be trained on this and create an eighth season. We only shot seven of them,” said Bateman.