PBS NewsHour and CNBC explain 'Why artificial intelligence is a central dispute in the Hollywood strikes'

I teased today's topic to terminate SAG-AFTRA members voting to authorize a strike against video game producers.

"All this talk of AI indicates that I need to explore that issue on its own. The Singularity is an apocalyptic scenario, after all, and is right on topic with the overarching theme of this blog." Stay tuned to see if I follow through on this topic tomorrow.

I'm following through by sharing PBS NewsHour explaining Why artificial intelligence is a central dispute in the Hollywood strikes.

This Labor Day weekend, Hollywood production remains shut down by writers and actors on strike. At the heart of negotiations is figuring out the role of artificial intelligence in the motion picture industry. Jules Roscoe, a reporter at VICE Motherboard, joins Ali Rogin to discuss the collision of labor and technology.

Rogin and Roscoe did a good, if brief, job of explaining why, as I wrote in Examinations of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes leading into the Labor Day weekend, "AI is a pressing technological issue for actors and writers. Welcome to the Singularity where the main effect is losing jobs to robots, not everyone becoming cyborgs or the machines enslaving or killing off humanity."

When only the WGA was on strike and just before the SAG-AFTRA contract expired, CNBC examined How AI Took Center Stage In The Hollywood Writers' Strike on June 30, 2023.

After failing to reach a contract resolution with the studio association, more than 11,000 film and television writers remain on strike. Of the many topics under consideration in this year's Writers Guild of America contract discussions, one nascent technology has fueled dissent among the negotiators: artificial intelligence.

Since the last writers' strike in 2007, widespread consumer adoption of video streaming has exemplified how novel technologies can upheave the entertainment industry. Now, however, the leaders in the streaming space are dealing with the ballooning costs of high-output, high-quality content.

"Today, the only one we know of that is cashflow positive is Netflix," said Dan Rayburn, a streaming media analyst. "They've estimated they'll be about $3.5 billion of free cash flow this year. Every other company out there, if you think about it, is losing money. Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, losing billions and billions and billions of dollars a year."

As streaming companies scramble to nourish their bottom line, content is being removed from platforms, cutting off creators from being compensated.

Watch the video above for more on how AI is fueling the WGA's fight for a fair contract.

The context may have changed once the actors went on strike, making this video a little out of date, but the issues remain the same. The effects of AI have implications beyond entertainment, including for education, the field I work in. That makes this personal.

I plan on updating my readers on the progress or lack thereof in both the SAG-AFTRA or WGA strikes and the UAW negotiations, but only after I return to the News & Doc Emmy Awards for the weekend. Stay tuned.