by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
While the DGA may have folded, the SGA-AFTRA and WGA need to hold the line when it comes to the studios and the use of AI. If they don’t get concrete, specific carveouts for humans in the recorded arts….that’s all she wrote. Hollywood as we know it will burn to the ground and if you want any form of human-generated entertainment, you’re going to have to go to Broadway.
You would have to be a clueless, shortsighted fool not to see where AI is going at the moment. MidJourney already is very close to crossing the uncanny valley. Turn those still images into video and use ChatGPT6 (or whatever) to make an totally digital movie and there won’t be any need for humans in the recorded arts at all.
The only humans making a living from recorded entertainment will be, well, the suits. They will hire AI programmers and that’s it. And, in the end, there’s a chance that video games and Hollywood will fuse into “immersive personal media” where everyone “plays” their recorded entertainment using an Apple Vision Pro.
That definitely seems to be our future at the moment — unless, of course, SAG and WGA hold the line and cause real pain for the Hollywood studios. Of course, there is a real risk that Hollywood studios have the high ground and all they have to do is just wait until AI technology reaches the point until no humans are needed.
It could happen within 18 months.
It will be interesting to see how things work out. If nothing else, Broadway stars might become what Hollywood stars are today — talk about a black mirror episode!
