The Writers Guild of America‘s east and west chapters have despatched a strongly-worded letter to the heads of the foremost Hollywood studios, criticizing them for inaction as synthetic intelligence seems to be taking copy-written scripts and utilizing it to “plagiarize stolen works.”
The letters have been despatched on Thursday to Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios; Disney CEO Bob Iger; NBCUniversal Studios & Leisure chair Donna Langley; Netflix co-CEO and president Ted Sarandos; Paramount World co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins; Sony Footage Leisure CEO Ravi Ahuja; and Warner Bros. Discovery president/CEO David Zaslav. Within the letter, the WGAW and WGAE officers cite a Nov. 18 article by The Atlantic, noting that “tech firms have looted the studios’ mental property—an enormous reserve of works created by generations of union labor—to coach their synthetic intelligence techniques.”
The WGA officers go on to criticize the studios for doing “nothing to cease this theft. They’ve allowed tech firms to plunder total libraries with out permission or compensation. The studios’ inaction has harmed WGA members.”
The letter goes on to notice that the WGA’s collective bargaining settlement “expressly requires the studios to defend their copyrights on behalf of writers,” and calls for that the studios “take speedy authorized motion in opposition to any firm that has used our members’ works to coach AI techniques.” Insiders observe, nonetheless, that the WGA contract doesn’t embody any safety in opposition to AI coaching, therefore the necessity to go public with these issues.
Right here is the textual content of the complete letter:
The November 18 Atlantic article “There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing is Powering AI” confirms what was already clear to so many: tech firms have looted the studios’ mental property—an enormous reserve of works created by generations of union labor—to coach their synthetic intelligence techniques. Having amassed billions in capital on this basis of wholesale theft, these tech firms now search to promote again to the studios highly-priced providers that plagiarize stolen works created by WGA members and Hollywood labor.
The studios, as copyright holders of works written by WGA members, have achieved nothing to cease this theft. They’ve allowed tech firms to plunder total libraries with out permission or compensation. The studios’ inaction has harmed WGA members.
The Guild’s collective bargaining settlement—the MBA—expressly requires the studios to defend their copyrights on behalf of writers. MBA Article 50 gives that the studios maintain “in belief” rights reserved to sure writers of authentic works. Writers who’ve separated rights in these works beneath Article 16.B retain all different rights within the materials, together with the proper to make use of the works to coach AI techniques. As holders of these rights in belief, the studios have a fiduciary obligation to guard in opposition to the unauthorized use of the works for AI coaching functions.
It’s time for the studios to come back off the sidelines. After this business has spent a long time combating piracy, it can’t stand idly by whereas tech firms steal full libraries of content material for their very own monetary achieve. The studios ought to take speedy authorized motion in opposition to any firm that has used our members’ works to coach AI techniques.
Sincerely,
WGAW Officers
Meredith Stiehm, President
Michele Mulroney, Vice President
Betsy Thomas, Secretary-Treasurer
WGAE Officers
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, President
Christopher Kyle, Secretary-Treasurer
Erica Saleh, Vice President, Movie/TV/Streaming
