AI Is the Wild Card in Hollywood’s Strikes—Here’s an Explanation of Its Unsettling Role

AI Is the Wild Card in Hollywood’s Strikes—Here’s an Explanation of Its Unsettling Role
Members of The Writers Guild of America picket outside Fox Studios in Los Angeles, Calif., on May 2, 2023. Ashley Landis/AP Photo
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LOS ANGELES—Artificial intelligence has surged to the forefront of Hollywood’s labor fights. Standing alongside more traditional disputes over pay models, benefits, and job protections, AI technology is the wild card in the contract breakdowns that have led actors and writers unions to go on strike.

The technology has pushed negotiations into unknown territory, and the language used can sound utopian or dystopian depending on the side of the table. Here’s a look at what the unions and their employers each say they want.

Why Is Artificial Intelligence Such a Hot-Button Issue?

As the technology to create without creators emerges, star actors fear they will lose control of their lucrative likenesses. Unknown actors fear they’ll be replaced altogether. Writers fear they’ll have to share credit or lose credit to machines.