by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Let me be clear — I’m always wrong.
But all this talk about how the WGA strike may last “until September” is rather silly. It seems to me that Hollywood suits have the high ground and they could very well just cool their heels until AI advances to the point that the WGA becomes…moot.
The issue is that if LLMs were being used just to help development, then it would be just like using a search engine to help develop a novel, movie or TV show. But, surprise, because people are lazy and stupid, within 18 months it could be that writers, actors and directors may become very, very moot because AI will have advanced to the point that that is a real possibility.
If I had any control over such things, I would not ban LLM so much as demand specific broad carveouts for humans. There should be specific Hollywood jobs that HAVE to have a human do them — no AI.
But it definitely seems as though that won’t be the case. The momentum is there for Hollywood to be “Moneyballed” to the point that a huge swath of the Hollywood industry will be mooted.
What the suits want is there to be a lot of Suits, a few programmers and then some very, very, very poorly paid writers who just prompt movies — until that becomes moot, too, with technological advancement.
Anyway, the point is — unless something changes, all of this going to happen so fast that the system can’t catch up and Hollywood will collapse into itself into some sort of AI singularity.
So it could be not until September of this year, but September of NEXT YEAR before the Writers’ strike is over. And when it’s over the WGA may be rather mooted.
