How Hollywood writers set a new standard for AI protections

A tentative agreement between Hollywood writers and film studios could set a precedent for protecting workers from being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).

After a 148-day strike, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached a tentative agreement last week including several AI-related protections for writers.

While some of the AI rules are specific to Hollywood, experts said the overall debate and power the agreement gives workers could translate into other labor battles beyond the scope of television and movies.

The deal between writers and studios comes amid growing concerns over the risks AI technology poses to workers. But WGA leaders weren’t trying to set a precedent — they were just seeking to protect their workers from anticipated threats over the next three years, said John August, a member of the WGA negotiating committee.

August said the fact that this battle emerged first with the writer’s guild was a “fluke of timing.” 

“This was the first time AI has come up in our negotiations and as far as we know, any labor organization’s negotiations,” August told the Hill. 

How did AI emerge as a sticking point for Hollywood?

August said the WGA first started having discussions about the risks posed by AI toward the end of last year. The launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November and its instant success drove new concerns about how quickly generative AI technology had advanced.

While the WGA was primarily focused on more immediate threats, such as wages and health care, August said the union also wanted to get ahead of future issues driven by AI.

“Most of the things we’re fighting for in this contract, I liken them to a forest fire. … Our AI concerns kind of feel like a meteor that’s headed towards us,” August said.

“We can see the meteor coming here, but it’s not quite here yet. It’s not impacting our daily life just yet. And yet, we know that if we don’t address it now, and wait three years for the next contract, it could be too late,” he said. 

What are the new AI rules for studios?

Hollywood writers will have significant influence over when generative AI tools can be used for television and movie scripts, according to a summary released by the WGA.

Writers have the right to choose to use AI “if the company consents and provided that the writer follows applicable company policies,” according to the summary. A studio, however, cannot force a writer to use AI.

The agreement gives union members “so much say over how that technology is going to be used,” said Sharon Block, a professor and executive director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School.

Block said companies often argue workers don’t have a right to bargain over the introduction of new technology into a workplace, she said. 

“The fact that the studios saw how central this issue was, and how important it was to workers, and how important it was to the future of their relationship with these employees … I think is really significant,” Block said.

“I really hope that that will be a model for other employers who are dealing with the introduction of this kind of technology into the workplace,” she continued.

The union also “reserves the right to assert that exploitation of writers’ material to train AI is prohibited,” according to the summary. Companies must disclose if any materials given to a writer have been generated by AI or incorporate AI-generated material. 

The agreement additionally bans AI-written or rewritten literary material.

“AI-generated material can’t be used to undermine a writer’s credit or separated rights,” the summary reads.

At the same time, it could be a win for the studios who seek copyright protections on that material, said Columbia Business School professor Olivier Toubia.

For a work to be considered applicable for copyright protection, it must include human authorship, a point that the U.S. Copyright Office has doubled down on in the face of AI creations. 

What does this mean for other industries?

The first test of what the WGA’s agreements may mean for other industries may play out as SAG-AFTRA — the union that represents about 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists and other media professionals — continues its strike against studios.

SAG-AFTRA is still negotiating after joining WGA on the picket line in July. Actors are also seeking protections from generative AI, especially the use of AI-generated likenesses of actors.

Toubia said that WGA was a “perfect prototype” to highlight the debate around AI concerns. SAG-AFTRA, he said, is similarly highlights concerns of how AI could influence human-facing industries.

SAG-AFTRA is dealing with the “notion of replacing humans with AI,” Toubia said. Instead of an AI actor, other fields may face threats of workers being replaced with an AI salesperson or AI banker, he said. 

August said the WGA focus is on two key principles — “AI cannot be used to replace the human worker,” and “AI cannot be used to drive down the wages and working conditions of the human worker” — that could apply across industries.

“Those were the kind of protections we were looking for in our contract, and were able to win,” August said.

“Every industry is going to be slightly different and most workers in America are not going to have a union to have their back. That’s why I think public policy, which is really our next frontier, is so important,” he added. 

As for writers, the role in which AI will play in their day-to-day operations is still unknown.

The technology has become increasingly more prevalent in the past five months — while writers were on strike for negotiations, August said. 

“We just got back to work. So we’re going to see what it looks like,” he said.