The Hollywood strike is something that is going on now in our country. In Hollywood one of the reasons that the writers and actors are going on strike is because of AI concerns.
With the rise of AI some directors can use it to compose the script themselves, and the writers are not very happy about this. Certain directors such as Tim Burton, Wes Anderson, Guillermo del Toro, and Hayao Miyazaki, have shown that they are not fond of what AI is doing.
According to “Directors Speak Out Against AI’s Impact on Artistic Craft and Soul” by Marcin Frąckiewicz, Tim Burton claimed that he was not too thrilled with the filter about, what he called,“Tim Burton-izing” people and Disney characters. He said that it had taken the fun out of creating the stories.
As shown these artists do not appreciate the AI of today being used to imitate their work and create different things labeling it as a “filter.” Because of things like Chat GPT, the directors could easily type in a prompt and modernize it to what they wanted, making the writers practically useless.
Even the actors nowadays prefer not to use the AI as their script, and they are even concerned about the AI replacing them for more “synthetic performances.” Although many people believe that without real actors the performances will be less realistic and harder to “connect with” or have empathy for.
According to, Pew Research finds a big problem with AI: People don’t trust it by Rob Enderle, “in 2021, 37% of respondents said they were more concerned than excited about AI. That number stayed pretty much the same last year (38%), but has now jumped to 52%.” People are getting more and more concerned about the rise of AI once they realize all that it can do.
Yes, there are many concerns about AI but another reason for the strike is underpayment. The writers and actors believe they should be paid more for all the things they do. The surge of streaming platform payments have changed a lot over the years, but the actors and writers pay has not changed, making them quite frustrated.
The percent that streaming platforms payment has gone up in around 6.1 billion dollars yearly in four years, seeing as in 2019 streaming platforms were being paid 11.4 billion, and in 2022 they were being paid 17.5 billion.
The annual salary of the 75th percentile of actors is only $32,000, so the actors believe that they should be paid more for the movies and or TV shows they star in, because they are the entertainment being put on streaming platforms and they are not getting paid nearly as much.
As for the screenwriters, yearly they get paid on average, $60,000 to $100,000. Even the writers are getting paid more than the actors.
How long is this strike predicted to last?
According to CNBC, the strike is supposed to last around 150 days. They even said at the end of this the pay is supposed to increase, “The deal will last until May 2026 and includes a 5% minimum pay increase upon the ratification of the contract. Another 4% bump will occur on May 2, 2024, and another 3.5% increase will be instituted on May 5, 2025”.
According to Los Angeles Times, they believe the strike is supposed to last 148 days. So pretty close to what CNBC thinks. From a few more websites, they all say that the strike lasted around these estimates. It is predicted that the writers and actors will get paid more and win the strike.
