Hollywood studios and streaming services have disclosed the terms of their latest contract proposal for striking writers, in an effort to end the largest strike in Hollywood in 60 years, as reported by CBS News on August 23. The proposal sent to the Writers Guild of America (WGA) includes a 5% increase in wages for writers in the first year of the contract, followed by 4% in the second year, and 3.5% in the third year. Additionally, the proposal introduces a clause stating that work generated by generative artificial intelligence (GAI) will not be classified as “literary material.” This clause aims to safeguard writers from losing writing credit and residuals due to the growing involvement of AI in screenplay writing.
While the latest proposal falls short of the WGA’s demand for wage increases of 6%, 5%, and 5% in consecutive years, it does represent an improvement compared to the contracts that were in place prior to the writers’ strike on May 2. The previous contracts offered wage increases of 4%, 3%, and 2% over the same time frame. The WGA is also pushing for AI-produced content to be excluded not only from the category of “source” or “literary” material but also from being utilized for training AI models. Although some aspects remain unresolved, the new proposal guarantees writers a minimum of 10 weeks of employment, a provision that was initially rejected by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) before the strike began. Additionally, the AMPTP has committed to providing writers with viewership data through confidential quarterly reports, which would benefit writers whose projects perform well on streaming platforms.
Sources:
https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/writers-guild-artificial-intelligence-proposal-1235560927/