美国国家公共电台 NPR--Striking movie and TV writers worry that they will be replaced by AI

Striking movie and TV writers worry that they will be replaced by AI

Transcript¹

A sticking point in the Hollywood writers strike is the use of artificial intelligence. AI is already being used in Hollywood writing, but what fears and hopes do writers have about AI's future?

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Hollywood writers are on their third week of a strike against major studios. They want higher wages and more residuals² from the streaming platforms. Another issue they're still stuck on is the issue of using artificial intelligence in writing films and TV shows. NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports on the fears of screenwriters as they look to a possible future with AI in the writers room and the perhaps surprising ways that some writers are embracing it.

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE³: Movie and TV writers have envisioned AI as evil, as in "The Terminator."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE TERMINATOR")

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: (As The Terminator) I'll be back.

DEL BARCO: Or traitorous⁴, as in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey⁵."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY")

KEIR DULLEA: (As Dr. Dave Bowman) Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

DOUGLAS RAIN: (As HAL 9000) I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.

DEL BARCO: Or empathetic, like in the film "Her."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HER")

SCARLETT JOHANSSON: (As Samantha) Like, are these feelings even real, or are they just programming?

DEL BARCO: In real life, some Hollywood writers on strike say they're worried studio executives could eventually replace them with AI. That's one concern for comedy writer Miranda Berman, who picketed⁷ outside Paramount⁸ Pictures this week.

MIRANDA BERMAN: This is only the beginning. If they take writers' jobs, they'll take everybody else's jobs, too. And also in movies, you know, like, the robots kill everyone in the end.

DEL BARCO: On the picket⁶ line outside Universal Studios, TV writer Lanett Tachel said she's worried studios will hire fewer writers to simply doctor up whatever the machines come up with.

LANETT TACHEL: We're coming back fighting so that Alexis and whatnot aren't writing our stories. We're not here to rewrite a machine. We're not against the use, you know, if we can find a way to be reasonable. But they cannot be the genesis of any creation. We create these worlds.

DEL BARCO: Tachel says she recently read a script written by ChatGPT.

TACHEL: And it was terrifying. Now, was was the quality there? No, absolutely not. The structure was there. So they understand the structure of what to do. But it had no depth. It had no spirit. It didn't have nuance⁹. It wouldn't understand how to handle race, certain jokes, things like that.

DEL BARCO: The Writers Guild¹⁰ of America, which called for the strike, says writers want more regulation of AI. For example, bans on studios using it to write or rewrite things like stories, treatments and screenplays or even write the source material that human writers would adapt for the screen. They also don't want the writers' work to be used to train AI. Meanwhile, the studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, say that the use of AI raises hard, important, creative and legal questions for everyone, and that it requires more discussion. They also point out that the current agreement already defines writers as people, so AI generated material wouldn't be eligible¹¹ for writing credits. During a recent earnings¹² call, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors¹³ that AI development presents opportunities and benefits to the company.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BOB IGER: We're already starting to use AI to create some efficiencies and ultimately to better serve consumers. But it's also clear that AI is going to be highly disruptive, and it could be extremely difficult to manage, particularly from an IP management perspective.

DEL BARCO: AI experts and writers say the new technology isn't yet able to write a good script, but AI is starting to crop up in Hollywood productions, and some are embracing it as a tool. Writers from the show "Mrs. Davis" used algorithms to generate episode titles. And as part of the promotion¹⁴ for their show, co-creators Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof ran the "Mrs. Davis" premise¹⁵ through what's called an AI visualizer program. Computer-generated images popped up when they typed prompts into a keyboard.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TARA HERNANDEZ: And the prompt would go a little something like this. "Mrs. Davis" is a series about a nun¹⁶, Sister Simone. She's a great nun, but she's also cool. She's an awesome¹⁷ renegade nun who rides a motorcycle.

DAMON LINDELOF: With a helmet. Always wear a helmet.

HERNANDEZ: Always. Always. Yes.

LINDELOF: And the nun has to find the Holy Grail in order to destroy this AI.

DEL BARCO: Other Hollywood writers say they're using AI in the form of language learning models to come up with ideas or spin out potential plot lines or develop characters using.

MATT NIX: I'm using it as a brainstorming¹⁸ tool and as a research aide.

DEL BARCO: TV writer Matt Nix says he tested several AI programs to give him episode ideas for his show, "True Lies." He says he recently pitched a new show and needed to research how a particular governmental agency worked.

NIX: Which you could do through a search engine, but it's a lot easier to do it with AI, because immediately after asking, OK, so what is the internal structure of this organization? You can then start building on that and saying, OK, so let's say there's a character named Joe who has this position. And let's say there's a character named Tina who has this position. How frequently would Joe and Tina be interacting?

DEL BARCO: Nix says when it comes to brainstorming ideas, if you make a single request, an AI program is likely to spit out the most cliched version of what it's seen before.

NIX: But if you play with it and you say, no, no, I don't want just one idea for this, I want five ideas for this, then it has to dig a little bit deeper and give you the less likely ideas.

DEL BARCO: Nix has been playing around with an AI app called Pickaxe. With it, writers can generate written scenes by describing their plots and characters in a text box. Pickaxe was built by Mike Gioia and Ian Eck, who run a film and media production company. Gioia says screenwriters have told them Pickaxe is a helpful tool.

MIKE GIOIA: To do, like, 80% of the work for them, like, get around writer's block, generate, like, a B-minus version of a scene or a conversation that they can then spruce up. It's a far way from being able to write screenplays, so I don't think many writers have to worry about their jobs.

DEL BARCO: Eck agrees.

IAN ECK: It's the creatives that are actually getting more empowered because you still need a creative mind. You need taste. You need to know what makes interesting drama and interesting characters, what makes a story good and what makes it human. That sensibility is not coming from the studio heads.

DEL BARCO: I tested out Pickaxe to see what it would come up with for the opening of a movie about an NPR reporter doing a story about how Hollywood writers are using AI.

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE #1: Interior - script AI office day. A young writer turns around and smiles.

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE #2: We input¹⁹ data about what makes a successful movie - plot structure, general conventions, character traits - and our algorithm generates a fully-formed screenplay.

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE #1: Suddenly, alarms blare. Red lights flash.

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE #2: The algorithm, it's gone rogue²⁰.

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE #1: Panic ensues as Mandalit looks around in horror. The camera pans to show other workers screaming and running.

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE #2: It's generating plot lines that make no sense, characters that contradict themselves. We have to stop it before it's too late.

DEL BARCO: The technology is still developing, but so far, even the AI-generated script envisions the bots running amok, just like all those sci-fi movies we've seen before. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 residuals   

剩余误差

参考例句：

• In some cases residuals from these arrivals will stack up to give nearly horizontal alignments. 在某些情况下，这些波至的残余会叠加在一起给出近于水平的同相轴。
• Strong oscillations can occur in the residuals as the number of terms is increased. 随着次数的增加，剩余时差会发生强烈的摆动。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 traitorous   

adj. 叛国的, 不忠的, 背信弃义的

参考例句：

• All traitorous persons and cliques came to no good end. 所有的叛徒及叛徒集团都没好下场。
• Most of the time I keep such traitorous thoughts to myself. 这种叛逆思想我不大向别人暴露。

5 odyssey   

n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险

参考例句：

• The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
• His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程，到此结束了。

6 picket   

n.纠察队；警戒哨；v.设置纠察线；布置警卫

参考例句：

• They marched to the factory and formed a picket.他们向工厂前进,并组成了纠察队。
• Some of the union members did not want to picket.工会的一些会员不想担任罢工纠察员。

7 picketed   

用尖桩围住（picket的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• They picketed the restaurant. 他们在饭馆外设置纠察。
• Humboldt riotously picketed Von Trenk but the play was a hit. 尽管洪堡肆意破坏《冯·特伦克》的上演，然而这个剧还是轰动一时。

8 paramount   

a.最重要的，最高权力的

参考例句：

• My paramount object is to save the Union and destroy slavery.我的最高目标是拯救美国，摧毁奴隶制度。
• Nitrogen is of paramount importance to life on earth.氮对地球上的生命至关重要。

9 nuance   

n.(意义、意见、颜色)细微差别

参考例句：

• These users will easily learn each nuance of the applications they use.这些用户会很快了解他们所使用程序的每一细微差别。
• I wish I hadn't become so conscious of every little nuance.我希望我不要变得这样去思索一切琐碎之事。

10 guild   

n.行会，同业公会，协会

参考例句：

• He used to be a member of the Writers' Guild of America.他曾是美国作家协会的一员。
• You had better incorporate the firm into your guild.你最好把这个公司并入你的行业协会。

11 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

12 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

13 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

14 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

15 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

16 nun   

n.修女，尼姑

参考例句：

• I can't believe that the famous singer has become a nun.我无法相信那个著名的歌星已做了修女。
• She shaved her head and became a nun.她削发为尼。

17 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

18 brainstorming   

献计献策,合力攻关

参考例句：

• With Brainstorming, treat the view on how to solve the problem rightly. 利用脑激励法(Brainstorming)，正确对待学生实验中的问题解决观。
• We are going to do some brainstorming soon. 我们很快就要做些脑力激荡。

19 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

20 rogue   

n.流氓；v.游手好闲

参考例句：

• The little rogue had his grandpa's glasses on.这淘气鬼带上了他祖父的眼镜。
• They defined him as a rogue.他们确定他为骗子。