Do Robots Scab?

By Gordon Hopkins “Interestingly enough it’s actually the executives that could be replaced by AI since their decisions essentially boil down to demographics calculations and could be an algorithm.” - Diedrich Bader, actor So the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has gone on strike. That means all the people who write the words your favorite TV personalities say have stopped writing things for them to say. For those of you who are thinking, “Who cares?” let me remind you that the last WGA strike was in 2003. With no one writing scripts, television saw a massive upsurge in reality TV.In other words, the WGA strike is the reason we have Kardashians today. If that isn't something to be worried about, I don't know what is.Strikes are always disruptive, which is the point, of course. Nobody likes a strike but, sometimes, they are the only way to get things done.With streaming and other changes in technology, the market has drastically changed and those writers now on strike are worried about how those changes will impact their livelihoods. This is not an unreasonable stance, no matter what your job.Sometimes when a strike is about changing technology, people tend to think strikers are trying to hold back the inevitable tide of advancing tech. They imagine Luddites smashing machinery to prevent mechanization of the mines.That's not what's happening here. These writers are only asking that their employers adapt to the changing technological landscape. Also not an unreasonable stance.I won't get into all of their demands. I'm only going to talk about one concern in particular, because it does not just impact television writers. It will drastically alter and sometimes threaten all manner of careers, including my own.Obviously, I am once again talking about artificial intelligence, or AI.The big questions for the WGA is, obviously, could an AI write a TV show? A lot of people seem to think the answer is yes. Those people are wrong.Once again, I feel the need to point out the fallacy in a lot of the conversations about AI. An AI doesn't create anything. The way AI works right now is, it sifts through existing material, find stuff that correlates to whatever commands it is given and then “remixes” it. It hasn't created anything new, anything original. All it has done is simply stitched together pieces of other people's work and created a sort of “Frankenstein's Monster” of a script, but without that spark of life a living creator can give.That is why one of the demands of the WGA is to allow creators not to have their original work co-opted by AI.Again, not an unreasonable stance in my opinion.Alas, Hollywood executives aren't exactly known for there interest in originality, as television's latest crop of reboots, remakes, reunions, re-imaginings and spinoffs attest.The late Harlan Ellison, one of the most decorated and acclaimed television writers, was abused by the studio system so badly for so long that he set ground rules that made him virtually unemployable in later years, simply because he would not allow studio execs to get away with it.Most writers don't have that option.Ellison was quite succinct in his view of the studio system's relationship with writers, “They treat writers like chattel.”No one should be treated like chattel. Not even the lowly writer.

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