What the fuck are the studios gonna do, make movies and shows without actors?

Highlights: The negotiating committee of the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, told its members on Saturday that it had received a “Last, Best and Final Offer” from the major entertainment studios as a strike that has brought much of Hollywood to a standstill continued for a 114th day.

“We are reviewing it and considering our response within the context of the critical issues addressed in our proposals,” the negotiating committee said. They did not say when they would respond to the offer, which came after an hourlong video conference call that included top studio executives.

Included in the offer was a wage increase that could be the highest in four decades, according to a person familiar with the offer who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations. The studios also offered the actors a new way to determine residuals for streaming programs based on performance metrics, and protections on artificial intelligence, including consent and compensation requirements. The studios also offered an increase to the pension and health funds.

    • TechyDad
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      251 year ago

      I highly doubt this for one big reason: The courts have already ruled that AI generated content isn’t eligible for copyright protection.

      Suppose a studio managed to make a Big AI Action Franchise using only AI. They wouldn’t be able to copyright any of the movie. This would mean that people could download and share it freely. Streaming services could put it online without needing to pay the studio that “made” the film. Movie theaters could get a copy online and show it instead of paying for copies.

      A copyright free AI Movie would be a revenue disaster. And we know that if there’s one thing the studios care about, it’s money.

      • @Maggoty
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        51 year ago

        Okay? Where’s that line? Do we need one voice actor? A human “director”? Trust capitalism to find the limit. Also the judiciary is looking pretty compromised these days. There’s a good chance the corporations bat their eyes at the judges and suddenly the studio’s rights are recognized but not any individual creators.

        • @FlowVoid
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          61 year ago

          That line is whatever you want to copyright.

          So if you make an AI generated movie and then add one voice actor, then I can copy and sell everything except the voice actor.

          I can copy the movie replacing the voice actor with another, edit them out entirely, write and sell a novelization, use the images from your movie to make action figures and T shirts…

        • Natanael
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          21 year ago

          Copyright is essentially per-element, so everything that was exclusively AI generated is free-for-all because embedded human expression is a hard requirement for copyright protection

          • @Maggoty
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            11 year ago

            Interesting, I did not know that.

    • Flying Squid
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      161 year ago

      “These people will be replaced one day, so let’s not pay them fairly now” is not the good argument you think it is.

    • @ArbiterXero
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      111 year ago

      Very soon is still 10 years out, but you aren’t wrong.

      Ironically this will level the playing field for truly good and creative writing, but will also generate a fuck ton of “crap”

      It’s gonna be an interesting ride.

      • @givesomefucks
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        121 year ago

        10 years out is still very optimistic…

        I’d be surprised if there’s a movie in 2033 that had absolutely zero input from a human, let alone a popular one and definitely not the vast majority of movies.

        Even 20 years is probably optimistic.

        • @ArbiterXero
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          31 year ago

          Sure, but in 10 years, someone will be able to tell ai “make me a movie about cowboys where x happens” and it’ll make a script. And we’ll be able to ask ai to make a cgi scene where x happens.

          It will drastically shrink the workforce required to do it.

          • @[email protected]
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            21 year ago

            That usually leads to more products, not fewer workers.

            I wish AI would take over 90% of my job, production would go though the roof.

      • FaceDeer
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        41 year ago

        I’m quite fine with a huge number of crap movies being generated if it also means that the good stuff comes along with it. Sturgeon’s law is inescapable so anything that increases the raw amount of movie being made works in my favor.

    • snooggums
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      111 year ago

      There is no way that completely AI generated movies will be the majority of content that people actually watch and talk about in the next 50 years. Yes, it will take over a lot of the tedious parts of filming and will probably make up a significant portion of a lot of movies, like any kind of automation does.

      Any attempts to AI generate a script for a full movie is going to be gibberish without human intervention, actually doing the right emotion for the right lines, and action scenes that aren’t a train wreck are going to be comedic levels of crap for a very, very long time.

      Humans can barely pull all of those off and what is the AI going to learn from when most of the current movies are crap? Hell, I will be impressed when AI can create a 10 minute short that is coherent and I don’t see that happening before 2050.

      • @ABCDE
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        11 year ago

        Any attempts to AI generate a script for a full movie is going to be gibberish without human intervention

        How so? It’s super easy to get ‘AI’ applications to do random stories based on loose ideas. Scripts are easy, especially so if you look at the garbage being pumped out on Netflix.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        It’s my understanding that some movies are already doing big pieces of it already.

        A lot can change in 50 years.

        And if people are happy with superhero movies they’ll be happy with AI content.

    • @[email protected]
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      1 year ago

      That’s awesome, why would we need the studios then? I can just generate my own movies. But until then maybe we can compensate actors fairly and the studios can also live on until we don’t need them anymore.

      • @[email protected]
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        21 year ago

        That’s awesome, why would we need the studios then? I can just generate my own movies.

        Fuck yeah! But I’m sure there will be some legal fuckery to keep this out of most people’s reach.

    • @[email protected]
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      41 year ago

      If AI can write, direct, act, and stage the movie then what is the production company for?

      If everything can be done by computer, then one small shop can type the idea into some cloud service and spit out a movie just as easily as Disney.

      Sure, for a couple years things might be proprietary, but just like every other software innovation, it’ll quickly trickle down to everyone else and then the only thing left for a studio to do is marketing.

    • @fosiacat
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      31 year ago

      but I thought the supreme court has already deemed AI as unenforceable copyright. so anything they do could just be reproduced for free/cheap, so not really a sustainable idea?

    • Uranium3006
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      21 year ago

      if that happens hollywood as we know it’s over anyways. if anyone in their basement can just AI generate a whole ass movie, they will. hell you could make your own at home with a good enough GPU

      • BaroqueInMind
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        1 year ago

        hell you could make your own at home with a good enough GPU

        You can literally already do this in various video game engines for the past two decades, some can even automate your animations like Unreal 3 &4 or Source Engine

    • Neato
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      1 year ago

      Their feedback loop will turn into copying a copy real quick. And the moment AI puts any hurt on any industry their lobbyists will get copyright updated and fuck AI sideways.

      This is all assuming a single AI produced thing isn’t a horror show top to bottom which is a tall order.

    • @[email protected]
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      1 year ago

      Kaufman already commented on this by saying that most drivel shat out by Hollywood could be done by AI anyways.

      It’s rare you see something original and good. Most people won’t know whether the next 10 marvel movies are written by AI because it’s all ad-lib crap anyways.

      He specifically likened it to eating fast food your entire life and thinking it’s normal because you haven’t had anything else.

    • @JeeBaiChow
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      11 year ago

      Ai will just reduce creativity to a mass of dull grey.