Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) has become a key issue for the Guild — and the entertainment and media industries broadly — with implications for the employment and compensation of many creative workers.

The 2023 MBA established groundbreaking AI protections for Film/TV/Streaming writers, and the WGAE will strongly enforce these new MBA provisions. The WGAE has also secured, and will enforce, strong protections against AI in multiple Online Media contracts. In addition, the WGAE is engaged in policy advocacy against the theft and exploitation of writers’ works by AI models.

2023 MBA PROVISIONS

The 2023 MBA established regulations for the use of AI on MBA-covered projects in the following ways:

• Neither traditional AI (technologies including those used in CGI and VFX) nor generative AI (GAI, meaning artificial intelligence that produces content including written material) is a writer, so no written material produced by traditional AI or GAI can be considered literary material.
• If a company gives a writer written material produced by GAI that hasn’t been previously published or exploited, that material doesn’t count as assigned material (for compensation purposes) or source material (for determining credits), and can’t be used to disqualify a writer for separated rights. In other words, a company can’t give you an AI-generated screenplay and pay you a rewrite fee—you would be treated as the first writer of the screenplay.
• A writer can choose to use AI when performing writing services if the company consents and the writer follows any applicable company policies. But the company can’t require the writer to use AI software (e.g., ChatGPT) when performing writing services.
• The Company must disclose to the writer if any materials given to the writer have been generated by AI or incorporate AI-generated material.
• The WGA reserves the right to assert that exploitation of writers’ material to train AI is prohibited by MBA or other law.

In addition, the companies agreed to meet with the Guild to discuss their use and intended use of AI. Read the MBA’s AI provision in the 2023 Memorandum of Agreement.

WGAE AI TASK FORCE

The WGAE Council launched an AI Task Force with members from all three sectors. The Task Force meets monthly to track and research AI’s effect on our professions and to shape actionable ideas. We are also pursuing federal and state legislation in conjunction with our union allies.

Do you belong in our AI brain trust? Reach out to me at lcullen@wgaeast.org.

GUILD ACTION ON AI

The WGAE monitors developments related to AI technology and its use in the industry, and engages on AI policy to advocate for writers’ interests. Check out some of WGAE’s recent AI policy and member actions:

• WGAE and WGAW filed a joint comment with the U.S. Copyright Office in their Copyright and AI Inquiry in October 2023. Through WGA’s comment submission form, over 500 hundred WGA members also provided comments in this proceeding.
• WGAE co-signed a March 2024 letter to Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling for AI protections for film and television writers, journalists and content creators in his AI Senate Roadmap with The NewsGuild-CWA, Writers Guild of America West, and National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-CWA.
• Over 1,000 WGAE members signed a petition to support introducing ways to protect journalists from the ever-growing existential threat of AI, and to demand they’re included in the decision-making process regarding AI tools in their workplaces.
• WGAE President Lisa Takeuchi Cullen and WGAE Director of Communications & Policy participated in an April 2024 White House Roundtable Discussion on AI and Workers Rights with senior Administration officials, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, select labor unions and the top tech companies working on artificial intelligence.
• WGAE staged a virtual AI Day of Action to advocate for worker protections against AI.
• The WGAE endorsed a 2023 bi-partisan U.S. Senate bill to label any content made with AI
• The WGAE endorsed Senator Welch’s TRAIN Act. The bill would enable rightsholders (including those with separated rights) with a good faith belief that their works were copied into an AI model to subpoena the AI company for those training records. If the AI developer fails to comply with the subpoena, the rightsholder would gain a rebuttable presumption that the developer made copies of the copyrighted work.
• The WGAE endorsed Senator Markey’s AI Civil Rights Act. The bill regulates algorithms involved in consequential decisions, such as those that impact people’s rights, including in the hiring and promotion process in workplaces. Further, the bill prohibits developers and deployers from offering, licensing or using covered algorithms that discriminate based on protected characteristics or that cause a disparate impact.

CONTACT THE GUILD

If you have encountered AI in the course of your WGA-covered employment, including if you have been asked to use AI or have been provided with AI-generated material, please contact WGAE Director of Communications & Policy Jason Gordon.

All press inquiries regarding the WGAE’s position on AI should be sent to Director of Communications & Policy Jason Gordon.

Sign up hear about future opportunities to support the WGAE’s AI efforts.

Our work on this issue is just beginning — and we can’t secure the crucial protections members need without support.

Fill out the contact form on this page to learn how you can get more involved in our fight to protect workers against the risks of AI.