TV’s war with the robots is already here

Those same writers may be able to make productive use of AI tools; the WGA calls for guardrails, not bans. And the imminent threat AI poses to writers’ careers can be exaggerated, as you know if you’ve ever tried to get ChatGPT to tell you a joke. (It’s a big fan of cornball “Why do the…” and “What do you call a…” constructions.) Some speculation, like the director Joe Russo muses that AI might one day create a rom-com starring your and Marilyn Monroe’s avatar feels like science fiction.

But science fiction has a tendency to become scientific fact. A year ago, ChatGPT wasn’t even available to the public. The last time the writers went on strike, in 2007, one of the sticking points was streaming media, then a niche business with things like iTunes downloads. Today, streaming has swallowed up the industry.

The potential rise of AI has implications for the workplace for writers, but it’s not just a labor issue. We too have an interest in the war with the storybots. A culture that is fed entirely by the outbreak of existing ideas is a stagnant culture. We need inventions, experiments and, yes, failures to move forward and evolve. The logical conclusion of an algorithmic, “more like you just saw” entertainment industry is popular culture that just… shuts down.

Perhaps one day AI will be capable of real inventions. It’s also possible that what “invention” means for advanced AI will be different from anything we’re used to – it could be miraculous or weird or incomprehensible. At that point, we can have a whole discussion about what “creativity” actually means and whether it is, by definition, limited to humans.

But what we do know is that in this timeline it’s a human skill to create a story that surprises, challenges, frustrates, discovers ideas that didn’t exist before. Whether we care about that – whether we value it over an unlimited supply of reliable, good enough menu options – is still our choice for now.