Screenwriting : ethical AI: modern storytelling dilemma by Robert Kiesling

I don't think AI belongs in storytelling, screenwriting, filmmaking, or acting, Robert Kiesling. I see AI as a threat because a lot of producers and filmmakers might want writers to use it to write scripts quickly. Speed over quality. And AI is terrible at writing scripts.

I think there are several reasons it will not be a part of the industry going forward.

1) the WGA has it in the agreement. Now that it is in there, the WGA will only increase controls around the use of AI, not have less controls.

2) Executives would be doing themselves out of the process. Currently a large amount work is involved in obtaining new work, filtering work and working with writers. If they can just generate 100 screenplays in a few minutes, bye-bye executives.

3) The courts have so far said AI cannot be granted copyright. So the work is public domain. Studios will not back public domain screenplays.

4) I can see a time when copyright owners will have to granted the rights for AI to access the material. Currently the power of AI is that is that it can be trained on the entire internet. If it has a limited access, its output will be crap.

5) It is all free at the moment (mostly). There will be a subscription or fee structure will make less appealing.

From a society POV.

6) people love stunt performers. Tom Cruise does a real stunt and the world loses it shit. CGI stunts, no one cares. People sneer at “a CGI Feast”film. They say all the CGI is why Marvel could be slumping. So people will value real writers, not computer writers.

7) I can also see a huge number of court cases from writers when a line or element from their work appears in an AI story. The AI will have to then put a defence up by stating the work it was trained on. This would also then open a claim.

The reason I dislike AI, is that it is a plagiarism machine.

Many people will make false equivalence to editing software. That people that didn’t use editing software all became redundant. Things like editing software speed up a human process. It was an automation of an existing processes. Editing software is more equivalent to autocorrect or spell check.

AI will be good for a search engine. Using the large language model that it uses, it will be able to understand (not really) the context and meaning of a document and make searching a better experience.

For instance if I search “I want to buy a Mustang” it will be able to show guitars made by Fender, based on my search history and other things rather than cars by Ford or horses.

Heres's my blog on 2 Critical Things Most Screenwriters Are Missing About AI

AI in this occupation will eliminate middle management like human assistants & dev execs before AI replaces creative talent. Suits should be worried. (I see in my twitter feed lots of show biz layouts). The big fail will be average talent- average writers, directors, actors, suits. If you are not special, you wont survive in this field. Kinda like the middle class economics in America. Being in the middle sucks.

What I'm seeing mostly right now is people feeling the need to get into some pro or anti AI camp, which I think is limiting and tribalistic. We just had a class on using AI to help with screenwriting get cancelled here in the UK at the London Screenwriters Festival following an uproar on Facebook. To be honest, it scared me. It was like a witch-hunt. I see much unneeded division in the future as the polarisation increases and people become more dogmatic (and aggressive) in their views. When it comes to screenwriting, I'm far less worried about AI itself than I am of the people vehemently against it.

I'm also seeing a lot of people talk about what AI can and cannot do with next to zero experience or awareness of what's going on. The leaps made in the last twelve months, when it comes to generative video for example, have been genuinely mind-blowing.

I use AI to make my spec script poster images. I don't use it for my writing. The best screenplay analysis I've ever received has been via a preview I've had of an AI tool in development. I've blocked AI bots from scraping content on Script Revolution, but I also want the community to be aware of any tools that may benefit them.

It's clear, to me at least, that there is a nostalgic factor that will stop AI's intrusion into certain areas, particularly story-telling. I don't think anybody, at any level, from writer to producer to filmmaker to audience member wants AI generated narratives in any form. Good stories are supposed to be timeless expressions of what it's like to be human. That's why we tell them and listen to them. There's something fundamentally jilting about that coming from a non-human source. We're worrying about a threat that doesn't really exist.

When it comes to all those robotic tasks though, have at it. I can see AI tools revolutionising so many smaller aspects of filmmaking and film distribution.

For what it's worth, AI just isn't a topic of conversation I've had mentioned by any producers. The ones I know aren't talking about it at least. Getting a good writer to churn out a script is cost effective, reliable, and a fulfilling way to collaborate. I can't see why many people would want to change that.

It's a tool. Google is a tool. Encyclopedias are a tool. Writers workshops are tools. Using a stuffed animal as a soundboard is a tool. I've tossed some situations in ChatGPT and sometimes have had some great and not-so-great, to me, anyway, responses. Photoshop didn't eliminate photographers. Adobe Illustrator didn't get rid of artists. DAW for musicians didn't get rid of composers.

I am going to sounds like a bully and asshole. But I feel I must address something before the misconception metastasises.

AI is not a tool. All those things you mentioned are automations of existing human tasks. A power saw is more effective than me chewing through timber.

It is not a tool, it is an excuse. (see the asshole warning).

If a writer has no ability to write they will call it a tool in a hope of maintain some credibility. Calling it a tool is a self deception. It fools no one, especially people that can write and generate ideas.

It is no more a tool than we hiring a ghost writer and calling that person a tool.

Not a tool an excuse.

I think AI is a threat in a world lacking authenticity. With societal norms already having become fractured and out of wack, AI is further creating future destruction by encouraging today's children, who will be tomorrow's leaders, to switch their individuality, creativity, and brain off, and rely on computerised bullshit that has no depth of emotion or life experience, and to add insult to injury, it unapologetically condones it! I believe the only way forward for storytelling is to get back to basics; for writers to be raw and real within a world that has become fast and fake, and most importantly, to write from the HEART...

I'll always strive to write human stories, in my voice, from my beating heart. AI could have a good go, but it could only ever be a fabricated version of authenticity.

AI as a tool? Yes from me. I'm not going to pretend I can recall every entry in a thesaurus - I lean on Google for help with synonyms, and also conduct research as I'm sure many of you have also done (sometimes things that may alert google such as - how long does it take someone to die in a walk-in freezer haha).

As with Google, I can also lean on AI for help - I have no interest in asking AI to generate ideas and scripts for me, the day I do that, I should quit. But, I may ask it to summarise quantum physics to me, to get my understanding to a level that I could complete a small part of my sci-fi script. That's just an example as I've not actually used it for those purposes but I'd have no qualms doing so.

There are cons too, certainly, but, if you're true to yourself, write human stories, and write from your heart about things you give a damn about then who cares about hollow-brained hacks trying to cough out some regurgitated, plastic script in an attempt to get ahead? I'm just glad I have enough ideas, experiences and material to not be that person.

Hacks can stay in their lane and I'll stay in mine - where my people and my audience are

*** mic drop ***

All sorts of questions arise in my mind about AI and art. If AI provides the name of the MC and the beginning of a plot line, is this considered a collaboration? Do you have to assign credit to Mr. AI? For now, AI programs are created by human beings and carry the same qualities and frailties of the human who inputs the info/content. Who does the offended (an today everybody is offended by something) sue? Who owns AI output, such as book-cover art? If AI answers a question, do you have to cite where you got the answer in a scholarly paper? Is AI a "person" i.e. have legal standing for representation in plagiarism cases? Will people stop using their brains altogether? (Never mind.) Can I be sued for what my avatar does/says? Why are transformers always busy saving the world from meanie-panties instead of doing housework or writing symphonies? Does AI stand for Alien Identity? Alternative Inspiration? What if I create an alternative identity and nobody likes the other me as much as they dislike the real me? Can my shrink charge me double? (Asking for a friend.)

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I sometimes use AI like ChatGPT for scene description. Especially for cities I've never been to or don't know that well. I'll use a prompt like "Please describe [CITY] in 1-2 sentences." Then it will return out an elegant recap of the hits. Then I'll cut it down to a shorter, pithy description that captures the milieu I'm attempting to set.