Opinion | In Hollywood Strike, AI Is Nemesis
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Date: May 5, 2023
"The BBC even commissioned ChatGPT, an AI language model, to create opening monologues for late-night programs affected by the strike. This has sparked indignation..."
Greg's Words
This is just the beginning and it seems almost 'cosmic' with so many influences converging onto this point in time; the fear of covid, remote working, the restructuring of commercial real estate, artificial intelligence's impact on knowledge workers, and now a strike by a vulnerable segment of the job market, writers. Bad timing.
It doesn't take much to favorably compare the most rudimentary content created by ChatGPT with newscasting, copywriting, and scriptwriting. The AI does well enough without much prompt engineering - give the controls to directors and watch the number of soap operas, sitcoms, and nightly talk shows quadruple overnight. With less cost and just as much revenue.
AI doesn't get rid of people, it eliminates rote and mundane processes like creating a treatment, an outline for a show, and creating a script.
So I tried it, with a little help from the AI in the Sky:
"You are a Hollywood writer with decades of experience writing sitcoms for TV. Put together a treatment and the first two acts of a Siendeld show where the characters witness a UFO landing, a job loss, and meeting the most beautiful woman in New York City. Provide the storyline, scene description, and script."
In less than a minute:
Treatment:
In this special episode of Seinfeld, the four main characters - Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer - each experience a close encounter with a UFO landing in Central Park, causing all of their lives to change in unexpected ways. Jerry loses a job opportunity, George loses his job, Elaine meets the most beautiful woman in New York City, and Kramer becomes obsessed with the UFO phenomenon. Through their witty banter and clever situational comedy, the gang comes together to navigate these strange events.
Act 1:
Scene 1: Jerry's apartment