The Writers Guild of America has won its monthslong dispute with the studios. While the most immediate effect of the strike’s end will be the return of late-night TV—and hooray for that—the new deal may ultimately be most remembered as a precedent-setter in the much wider, emerging confrontation between labor and management over the use of AI.
Here’s the gist of the new three-year “basic agreement” as it relates to (mainly generative) AI:
If studios use genAI to generate scripts, the results won’t qualify as “literary material,” which means fleshie writers won’t have to share writing credits with the AI. GenAI output also can’t qualify as “assigned” or “source” material like a novel or game might, so again, the person tasked with wrangling such output gets all the credit—and doesn’t have to settle for the lower pay associated with doing rewrites. Studios must make writers aware if they’re being given AI-generated text to incorporate. Writers can use AI if they want (and must first notify the studio if planning to do so), but the studios can’t force them to use it. And the Guild gets to reject the use of its members’ writings to train AI models.
Obviously, these terms are specific to their context, which includes the fact that the studios have multiple incentives to keep humans involved in the process—straight genAI output is not copyrightable, and the technology is still a way off being able to write acceptable screenplays on its own. Other unions may also lack the muscle (and solidarity, in this case from Hollywood actors) to win comparable concessions.
But the underlying principle is at least theoretically applicable in many other sectors: AI is a tool that can be incorporated into the workflow—with the consent of everyone involved—but it’s not for replacing nor undermining the human worker.
That seems to be a healthy balance. It certainly fits very nicely with the “copilot” narrative of AI that companies such as Microsoft are touting, and sticking to that storyline would give AI its best shot at societal acceptance. But let’s see how this plays out over time.
Separately-ish, the WGA victory will also change the streaming biz somewhat, not only because the WGA won a new bonus based on exceptionally high-performing new streaming series and films, but also because this will require the likes of Netflix and Amazon to be a heck of a lot more transparent (at least, with the Guild) about the performance of high-budget, in-house productions. The Verge has a good piece on that.
More news below.
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David Meyer
NEWSWORTHY
FTC sues Amazon. Lina Khan’s Federal Trade Commission has finally filed its long-awaited suit against Amazon over alleged anticompetitive practices. This is a huge deal that could reshape the U.S.’s approach to Big Tech antitrust enforcement, and as such it’s extremely contentious, but the filing also presents a fresh mystery. As TechCrunch asks after reading a heavily redacted part of the complaint, what is Amazon’s “Project Nessie,” which has extracted something from American households, and which “belies [Amazon’s] public claim that it ‘seek[s] to be Earth’s most customer-centric company’”?
Net neutrality is back. With the Democrats having finally regained control of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this week, the agency is preparing to reinstate the 2015 net-neutrality rules that were rescinded in the Trump era. As Reuters reports, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel yesterday called an Oct. 19 vote on the matter, saying the repeal “wiped away enforceable, bright-line rules to prevent blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization,” and had “put the agency on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the public.”
Valve loses geo-blocking case. Valve Corp. has lost its appeal against an $8.2 million EU antitrust ruling from two and half years ago. The EU’s General Court upheld the fine, saying antitrust enforcers had proved the existence of agreements between the Steam operator and five PC game publishers to block users from activating games based on their location. These restrictions were designed to make it possible to charge users more in some countries than in others, rather than to properly enforce copyright—and EU competition law doesn’t allow such affronts to the bloc’s hallowed internal single market.
SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
$90 billion
—The upper end of the valuation range that OpenAI is seeking in a potential share sale, according to the Wall Street Journal. That would be three times OpenAI’s valuation in January when Microsoft bought 49% of the company. (P.S.—The Information reports OpenAI has been discussing a possible AI hardware device with none other than ex–Apple design guru Jony Ive.)
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Top AI tech startup founder and CEO fatally attacked at Baltimore apartment complex, by the Associated Press
Eddie Cue counters antitrust complaint over Apple’s search alliance with Google by saying there was no ‘valid alternative,’ by the Associated Press
Meta is paying out a ‘staggering’ $181 million to give back office space it can’t fill, by Eleanor Pringle
AI’s leap from the cloud to your laptop could fix some of the technology’s weak spots, by Sage Lazzaro
GitHub CEO: ‘Wall Street relies on software that was developed under Eisenhower. Here’s how AI can prevent the next financial crisis’, by Thomas Dohmke
It's not just you. LinkedIn has gotten really weird, by Business Insider.
BEFORE YOU GO
Yaccarino profile. The Financial Times has a very worthwhile profile of X CEO Linda Yaccarino, covering her ambitions—“those close to Yaccarino … say she has hinted at designs on roles such as Disney CEO”—and the very large, Elon Musk–shaped challenges that she faces.
Musk’s unpredictability and lack of enthusiasm about curbing misinformation mean Yaccarino will have a tough time reviving the former Twitter’s ad business, observers note, so her success rests on X’s ability to pull off that heavily touted transmogrification into an “everything app,” replete with financial services and so on. Former GroupM exec Rob Norman: “If she can do that, then she’ll be a hero. It’ll be a triumph.”
Yaccarino will also be speaking at the Code tech conference on Wednesday afternoon. Fortune will be covering the event, so check back on Fortune.com for a report of the X CEO’s onstage talk.
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