Welcome to Hollywood AI, the weekly newsletter covering the latest AI developments in the entertainment industry. Written by industry pros, for industry pros.

Our goal is to give you only the good stuff and keep you current on everything AI in media and entertainment.

Here’s what’s on tap today:

• ⏸ WGA Poised To Hit The Pause Button On Hollywood

• 📺 Will Generative AI Disrupt Video Streaming?

• 🟩 Can AI Kill The Green Screen?

• 🍿 AI Kernels

⏸ WGA Poised To Hit The Pause Button On Hollywood

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is poised to hit the pause button on Hollywood if a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) can’t be reached by tomorrow, May 1st. One of the central matters being negotiated between the two parties involves the use of artificial intelligence in Hollywood writers’ rooms.

To recap, the WGA has proposed the following :

• AI can’t be used as source material and AI-generated text cannot be considered in determining writing credits.

• Writers may not be assigned AI-generated material to adapt.

• Studios can’t use scripts generated by AI.

The appeal of AI to Hollywood, in particular to replace writers, is strong. In a recent New York Times article, Mike Schur, the creator of The Good Place and co-creator of Parks and Recreation, stated the following: “It is not out of the realm of possibility that before 2026, which is the next time we will negotiate with these companies, they might just go, ‘you know what, we’re good.’ We don’t need you. We have a bunch of A.I.s that are creating a bunch of entertainment that people are kind of OK with.”

The truth is that there is too much money on the table for studios and networks not to find new ways to create and monetize content without writers.

What comes out of these negotiations could have huge cultural implications. Media is a large part of our cultural diet. The writer-less content that studios start cranking out may define our culture for the next decade. Just think of how the explosion of reality television previously paved the way for influencer culture and a new president.

A few other hot topics are being negotiated between the WGA and AMPTP:

• The guild wants to make streaming residuals tied to the viewership of the content. It’s currently a low, fixed rate.

• It wants to set a minimum number of writers that need to be employed on a show. The rise in streaming has led to studios creating mini rooms to save money.

• It wants to raise the minimum pay that writers can be legally paid.

• The guild wants span protections updated to limit how long TV writers can legally be under an exclusive contract.

📺 Will Generative AI Disrupt Video Streaming?

A new article published in the Harvard Business Review claims that generative AI will soon disrupt the video streaming industry. Generative AI will level the playing field more than smartphones and social video platforms. It will also fundamentally change the video content industry.

Netflix, TikTok, and YouTube have all done well due to their ability to capture content relevance and engagement. All three platforms leverage enormous amounts of data about who watches what and how. On the flip side, they’re all faced with the same two problems:

• Extracting useful, precise data to better match content with users. The video data currently captured on platforms like Netflix falls under categories like Genres and Cast. This data is too broad and subjective for effective algorithms to learn from.

• Overcoming barriers to creation. Hollywood-style content production is expensive and slow. Netflix reportedly spent $17 billion on content in 2022. Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said, “But if we deliver a Wednesday every week, if we deliver a Glass Onion every week, we’ll get the vast majority of those viewers back.” With their current production model, there’s no way for Netflix to deliver a Wednesday or Glass Onion every week.

  The alternative? It could be TikTok and YouTube’s user-generated content creation. Although cheap & quick, this requires setting incentives that balance “three (sometimes conflicting) objectives”: retaining influential creators, motivating new creators, and retaining / growing the viewer base.

“No human-driven platform has yet overcome both of these challenges,” the article argues. “However, a solution may exist. Generative AI will change what video content to produce, how to produce it, and whom to show it to, ushering in an altogether new kind of AI-enabled platform.”

The generative AI-driven video platform would guide creators on what drives engagement and show relevant content to viewers.

In this scenario, creators are also viewers and vice-versa. The boundary is further blurred if the viewer types in a search, and that input text becomes the prompt for a new video.

The authors believe that the economic impact will be huge. Typically a small portion of popular content on a platform makes up for the remaining, less popular content. Popular content would be boosted by the help of algorithmic recommendations on what to make next. At the same time, the much lower barriers to creation will improve the profitability of less popular content.

Of course we don’t yet have the technology to generate hyper-realistic live action video from a text prompt. This technical capability is key to realizing an AI-powered video streaming platform.

READ MORE: How Will Generative AI Disrupt Video Platforms?

 🟩 Can AI Kill The Green Screen?

Despite the advancements in AI technology, the green screen continues to be an essential tool in the realm of visual effects. Its unique benefits in separating backgrounds present challenges for AI to replicate accurately, given the limitations of its training and available data.

While preparation can enhance outcomes, AI tools will likely coexist alongside green screens as part of a comprehensive set of options, rather than replacing them entirely.

🍿 AI Kernels

Here’s a round-up of interesting news and stories that caught our attention this week:

Grimes tells fans to deepfake her music. She says she’ll split 50% of royalties on any successful AI-generated song that uses her voice. → forbes

Nothing Forever is an AI-generated Seinfeld spoof. The show has over 98,000 followers on Twitch. → techcrunch

Will AI Unleash Celebrity ‘Simulation Rights’? Updated thinking and new contracts are needed to protect talent. → variety

Avengers director Joe Russo predicts AI could be making movies in two years. It will engineer and change storytelling. → yahoo

That’s a wrap for today’s newsletter. Thanks for reading Hollywood AI!

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