The Impact of AI on Transparency in Hollywood
During WGA’s 2023 walkout one of their main issues wasn’t a typical labor strife about compensation or residuals it was about AI. The concern was studios leveraging AI to write scripts, slash writer roles and remake...
During WGA’s 2023 walkout one of their main issues wasn’t a typical labor strife about compensation or residuals it was about AI. The concern was studios leveraging AI to write scripts, slash writer roles and remake Hollywood’s creative economy with little responsibility or visibility. That strike (and the SAG-AFTRA one that followed) opened up a public dialogue Hollywood had been quietly avoiding: AI has already penetrated the walls of Tinseltown. And no one was telling the whole truth about it. These days studios are being demanded to reveal how and when AI is used to produce our movies and TV shows. The ramifications of this are enormous and will affect everything from how we create to ethics, legal questions and what it means to be human.
The AI Debate That Sparked a Hollywood Reckoning
During WGA’s 2023 walkout one of their main issues wasn’t a typical labor strife about compensation or residuals it was about AI. The concern was studios leveraging AI to write scripts, slash writer roles and remake Hollywood’s creative economy with little responsibility or visibility. That strike (and the SAG-AFTRA one that followed) opened up a public dialogue Hollywood had been quietly avoiding: AI has already penetrated the walls of Tinseltown. And no one was telling the whole truth about it. These days studios are being demanded to reveal how and when AI is used to produce our movies and TV shows. The ramifications of this are enormous and will affect everything from how we create to ethics, legal questions and what it means to be human.
Ethical Questions Beyond Job Security
Ethics and AI filmmaking doesn't stop with job security concerns. There are plenty of other ethical concerns in AI Hollywood applications. Reviving actors who have passed away is one of them. Studios are now able to digitally recreate actors such as James Dean or Carrie Fisher for use in future projects. On one hand, it's a way of honoring these legends by allowing them to "continue" working. However, it does bring up questions about consent, dignity, and taking advantage of someone who has passed away. Yes, the family and estate can agree to this. But what about everyone else? Fans. And fellow actors. Many people aren't okay with deceased actors becoming a normal thing. Bias in AI is another topic. If your AI content generation software was trained on data that was biased in Hollywood (which it was), then wouldn't that be baked into the AI content it produces? Using AI in film/TV responsibly requires transparency around when it's being used, but also ensuring the tool itself is audited for what values it was trained with.
Can AI Replicate Human Storytelling?
Film reflects life, so if life is compromised by AI, shouldn’t we question films that are created by AI? Advocates will say AI levels the playing field and allows the indie filmmaker to create on par with billion-dollar studio movies. An indie director making his or her first feature in Lagos, Nigeria or Mumbai, India has access to AI that can create visuals that were once only possible in Hollywood. But if life feels flatter when lived through the lens of AI, wouldn’t films suffer from the same tepidness? The evidence of films fed by AI isn’t inspirational it’s predictable. Stories are more formulaic, conflicts are less confrontational, and conclusions are less cathartic. They lack the awkward truths that make us human. Moonlight didn’t win Best Picture because a computer identified slavery and racism as hot button topics. Parasite wasn’t hailed as a groundbreaking foreign film because AI generated a novelty talk scene.
These stories wouldn’t have been possible without a unique, lived human experience feeding their creation.
The Future of AI Across Film Budgets
In the future, artificial intelligence will impact movies differently depending on their budgets and target audiences. For tentpoles and franchise filmmaking, AI will be a multiplier, allowing studios to iterate on concepts and treatments, generate digital crowds, and render photoreal VFX at scale and a fraction of the cost and time. For mid-budget film production, where the margins are currently the tightest, AI may act as a saving grace, automating aspects of film production too expensive to keep the category viable. Or AI may render mid-budget films extinct by improving computer-generated imagery (CGI) to a point where cheap AI-created content is comparable to mid-budget offerings. As for micro-budget indies and experiential cinema, AI might act as a digital blank slate for experimental filmmaking via synthetic media or generative AI tools. Both Netflix and Amazon are experimenting with artificially intelligent movie-editing software that alters films' pacing, narrative beats, and dialogue to match the viewing habits and preferences of their subscribers. In some instances, moviegoers may already be subject to films that have been modified by AI unbeknownst to them.
Democratizing Filmmaking or Creating New Gatekeepers?
AI is also forcing us to rethink what filmmaking is and who should be allowed to make movies. The industry gatekeepers of Hollywood traditionally controlled who had access to production equipment, distribution channels, studio connections and relationships, financing, and more. But AI tools are enabling creators around the world to realize their visions with technology that was once only available to high-end production studios. AI has the power to create a renaissance of diverse storytelling from creators all over the planet. However, most powerful AI systems are owned by large technology companies. This could create an unfair bottleneck around access to filmmaking AI. If advanced filmmaking tools powered by cutting-edge AI remain private and expensive, then access will be limited. Studios and tech companies that control AI infrastructure will have extraordinary power to decide what kinds of movies get made and what the standard look and feel of those movies are. One gatekeeper is replaced by a handful of tech giants. Will the world of AI filmmaking be any different? Policy and open-source initiatives will play a big role in molding this future.
Intellectual Property and Legal Uncertainty
AI-generated content also poses legal risks from an intellectual property perspective. While the U.S. Copyright Office has been clear that works generated by artificial intelligence alone are ineligible for copyright, most content in Hollywood is being created through some form of human-AI collaboration, leaving open significant gray areas in who owns what. Litigation is already flooding the courts with claims that AI companies fed copyrighted material such as screenplays, books, and movies into AI systems without permission, essentially feeding the output of Hollywood into machines now poised to compete with it. Claims related to digital twins, which create AI versions of living actors' voices and likenesses, will be especially contentious given the patchwork state laws provide for personality rights. Until Congress enacts AI legislation that clarifies rights related to training data, definitions of authorship, and protections for performers, Hollywood will continue to face massive uncertainty.
Building a Human-AI Creative Partnership
The productive discussions taking place in Hollywood currently center around building out an operating model for human-AI collaboration. There are a handful of progressive production companies building out 'AI co-director' models, which prompt AI to spit out an array of possibilities (camera/composition setups, dialogue options, score choices) that the human leads edit and fine tune from. We view this as AI being used as a tool to augment the creative process rather than as a replacement of human judgment. In some cases, the labor deals struck as a result of the 2023 strikes have started to outline provisions regarding transparency, consent, and ownership when AI is used in a way that impacts union members. We believe the best practices are those that maintain human oversight of the final product allowing AI to provide breadth of options while maintaining the qualities that make art uniquely human.
Transparency as Hollywood’s Moral Imperative
AI disclosure isn’t just a technical issue facing Hollywood it’s a moral one. Forced disclosure is going to happen whether studios like it or not, but how they choose to handle it matters.
Viewers should know when studios used AI to manipulate their reality. Artists should be protected from unethical AI use that threatens their jobs or violates their likeness. Creators deserve to see AI protection built into copyright laws as production workflows continue to evolve. Cinema itself deserves advocacy and support so we don’t let machines degrade our stories into soulless garbage. The future studios that win won’t be the ones who leveraged AI to produce the cheapest content. They’ll be the studios who leverage AI to empower the biggest voices. Once governments start requiring AI disclosure at scale, Hollywood will be positioned to set an example for the rest of the world. But they’ll only earn that privilege by proving they have the humans’ best interests at heart. There are many writers on Hollywood’s current AI script. Let’s hope it’s ours.