Amidst the current strike by actors and writers demanding improved compensation, Hollywood is investing heavily in AI. Netflix, for instance, has offered an astounding $900,000 limit for the salary on a single AI product manager, raising eyebrows and intensifying the debate over Hollywood’s priorities.
The job description of the product manager at Netflix mentioned that they would use AI in all parts of the company’s work, like improving content creation and purchasing. They would also use AI in more regular ways, like customising content suggestions for users.
“So $900k/yr per soldier in their godless AI army when that amount of earnings could qualify thirty-five actors and their families for SAG-AFTRA health insurance is just ghoulish,” actor Rob Delaney, who had a lead role in the “Black Mirror” episode, told The Intercept. “Having been poor and rich in this business, I can assure you there’s enough money to go around; it’s just about priorities.”
From May, this year, roughly 11,500 members of the Writers Guild Academy (WGA) have been on strike for being forced into a ‘gig economy’ because of changes brought by the streaming era. They are employed on a weekly and episodic basis with no job security, health benefits, pension plans or even paid parental leave.
Writers also have to pay their lawyers and agents from their meagre salaries, while there is no security that they’ll be paid all year. The strike has shut down the production of late night shows such as ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ among others.
WGA was then joined by Screen Actors Guild (SAG); the two unions had a joint strike back in the 1960s due to payment problems. Now, after sixty years, actors and writers are walking out again due to contract disagreements. The concern for better pay may resonate with older actors, but newer issues like streaming royalties and the impact of AI may seem worrisome and reminiscent of the themes in George Orwell’s “1984” to those from Old Hollywood.
While other industries are still struggling to find the real case of generative, Hollywood seems to have a definite answer. In the coming days, other production houses will also join the AI league of Netflix, making writers and other prominent artists in the film industry obsolete.
