AI negotiator for Hollywood writers warns EU and US to stay on guard

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EU politicians should pay attention to the impact of the EU AI law as its impact remains to be seen, the lead negotiator behind a 148-day strike by Hollywood writers whose impact has reached far beyond California warned yesterday (October 3). Brussels.

Ellen Stutzman, executive director of the Writers Guild of America West (WGA), led negotiations on behalf of 11,500 screenwriters against series and film producers who had joined together in the Alliance of Motion Picture Producers (AMPTP), which fought to protect creative works Work from using large language models like ChatGPT.

She spoke to Euronews on the sidelines of an event organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the UNI Europa union – which led the WGA during the labor dispute.

“I think it's a good development and a starting point to push for more transparency, get consent and clarify how to deal with compensation,” Stutzman told Euronews about the EU AI law, but said, that “the knock-on effect of AI” remains to be seen which rules apply in Europe and elsewhere.

Stutzman said there is often an argument in the US and EU that AI should be used without the risk of stifling innovation.

“I think so [this argument] can trick regulators and politicians into thinking we shouldn't do anything,” she said, adding: “But that would be wrong. “Nobody asked companies to do everyone's job and create these models.”

After the Covid pandemic, production companies made budget cuts and writers were asked to do more work with fewer staff and less pay.

Fearing redundancy, writers went on strike, demanding that AI tools should only be used to support, not replace, research or script ideas.

The strike had knock-on effects on European productions and collaborations with US studios and artists, leading to delays and cancellations.

They eventually reached an agreement acknowledging that AI-generated material should not be treated on an equal footing with human-written texts and that authors could not be forced to use it.

Traditional media companies like Disney, Sony and Netflix are not the ones that have created large voice models, Stutzman said, “so we are able to negotiate with them on the terms of employment for our members,” she said.

“But we don’t get around to talking to OpenAI; There remains a need to address the ways in which these AI systems have used copyrighted works,” she added.

Workplace and the AI ​​law

The EU AI law, which regulates AI models based on their risk to society, came into force in August after long negotiations between the European Parliament, the 27 member states and the EU Commission. The first provisions will only come into force in six months, but Parliament is not sitting still.

MP Brando Benifei (Italy/S&D), who was Parliament's co-rapporteur on the law, has repeatedly called for more specific rules on AI and the workplace.

Benifei, speaking at the same event in Brussels, said that the AI ​​law already provides for the protection of original content through an obligation to watermark AI-generated content.

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Parliament will set up a monitoring group on the AI ​​law to monitor developments and actions in Member States and by the Commission. Completion is expected to take place in mid-October.

The chairman of Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee (EMPL), Li Andersson, said in August that “looking at AI and working life is very important due to the rapid changes.” “We need to ensure that both EU and national policymakers keep up with the speed at which things are changing,” she said.

Earlier this year, the Commission commissioned an external agency to study the current situation in the use of AI, which could potentially pave the way for a new policy proposal in the new mandate.