I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I wrote the screenplay

From The Terminator to 2001: A Space Odyssey, screenwriters love writing about dystopian, AI-run futures. But negotiating for who gets credit when the AI begins helping write the scripts? That’s a different story.

In its first bargaining session with the studios on Monday, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) proposed that AI can be used, but not receive credit for any contribution made during the screenwriting process. Meaning if a studio handed a writer an AI-written script to polish and edit, that writer would be credited with the entire screenplay.

🤝 Why it’s a big deal: The writers aren’t just jockeying for bragging rights – how they’re credited affects how much they’re paid, both up front and in residuals.

• Screenwriters who adapt “source material,” like a magazine article, book, or play, often only make 75% of the residuals they’d get for an original script.
• This distinction is also why the Oscars have two categories for writers: Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay.

♟️🤖 Bottom line: If approved, the proposal would be a big short-term victory for the screenwriters. But bigger questions still loom ahead. For one – the proposal doesn’t include any indication of how the WGA plans to treat a screenplay that’s 100% written by AI without any help from a human. 

The actor’s union, SAG-AFTRA, has also raised concerns about the effects of AI on performers, particularly around losing control of their image, voice, and likeness.