Summary: As Actors Strike for AI Protections, Netflix Lists $900,000 AI Job As Hollywood executives insist it is “just not realistic” to pay actors more, they are spending lavishly on AI programs. ~ In one case, Netflix is offering as much as $900,000 for a single AI product manager. ~ Just after the actors’ strike was authorized, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced “a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members.” The offer prompted comparisons to an episode of the dystopian sci-fi TV series “Black Mirror,” which depicted actress Salma Hayek locked in a Kafkaesque struggle with a studio which was using her scanned digital likeness against her will.
Among the striking actors’ demands are protections against their scanned likeness being manipulated by AI without adequate compensation for the actors. “They propose that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness, and to be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation,” the chief negotiator for the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, said.
Entertainment writers, too, must contend with their work being replaced by AI programs like ChatGPT that are capable of generating text in response to queries. Writers represented by the Writers Guild of America have been on strike since May 7 demanding, among other things, labor safeguards against AI. A screenwriter for films like “Big Fish” and “Charlie’s Angels,” explained that the WGA wants to make sure that “ChatGPT and its cousins can’t be credited with writing a screenplay.” ~ $300 for two hours of work “express[ing] different emotions” and “improvis[ing] brief scenes” to “train an AI database to better express human emotions.”
The posting is specially catered to attract striking workers, stressing that the gig is for “research” purposes and therefore “does not qualify as struck work”. ~ “The ‘research’ side of this is largely a red herring.” ~ "OpenAI is the nonprofit that created AI programs like ChatGPT and DALL-E. "Download everything on the internet and no worries about copyrights, because it’s a nonprofit and research. ~ "Netflix’s posting for a $900,000-a-year AI product manager job makes clear that the AI goes beyond just the algorithms that determine what shows are recommended to users. ~ “Artificial Intelligence is powering innovation in all areas of the business,” including by helping them to “create great content.”
A research section on Netflix’s website describes its machine learning platform, noting that while it was historically used for things like recommendations, it is now being applied to content creation. "Historically, personalization has been the most well-known area, where machine learning powers our recommendation algorithms. We’re also using machine learning to help shape our catalog of movies and TV shows by learning characteristics that make content successful. ~ In another job posting, Netflix seeks a technical director for generative AI in its research and development tech lab for its gaming studio.
Generative AI is the type of AI that can produce text, images, and video from input data — a key component of original content creation but which can also be used for other purposes like advertising. Generative AI is distinct from older, more familiar AI models that provide things like algorithmic recommendations or genre tags. “All those models are typically called discriminatory models or classifiers: They tell you what something is”. ~ “Generative models are the ones with the ethics problems, explaining how classifiers are based on carefully using limited training data to generate recommendations. Netflix offers up to $650,000 for its generative AI technical director role. Video game writers have expressed concerns about losing work to generative AI, with one major game developer, Ubisoft, saying that it is already using generative AI to write dialogue for nonplayer characters. ~ Crime Stories,” centered around crime stories, “uses generative AI to help tell them.” ~ In one, the entertainment giant is looking for a senior AI engineer to “drive innovation across our cinematic pipelines and theatrical experiences.” ~ "In fact, we’re already starting to use AI to create some efficiencies and ultimately to better serve consumers, as recently reported by journalist Lee Fang. ~ While striking actors are seeking to protect their own IP from AI so is Disney.
“AI isn’t bad, it’s just that the workers need to own and control the means of production!”