In the wake of the WGA strike last summer, and the constant fear that writers have been carrying on their shoulders with the introduction of AI, many creatives are commenting on the anxieties the masses seem to have. According to Deadline, In an interview, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos denied that AI is a threat to the creative jobs within the entertainment industry. He also squashed the fear of AI eliminating creative jobs.
In an interview with The New York Times, Sarandos explained that it isn’t the computers and technology that the masses should be afraid of. Rather, writers and actors should use technology to enhance their creative visions. What people should be upset at and scared about, are those in creative jobs who lean towards using AI to produce a product.
Sarandos explained, “I have more faith in humans than that. I really do. I don’t believe that an A.I. program is going to write a better screenplay than a great writer, or is going to replace a great performance, or that we won’t be able to tell the difference.”
He then followed that with, “A.I. is not going to take your job. The person who uses A.I. well might take your job.”
He continues, “Volume stages did not displace on-location shooting. Writers, directors, editors will use A.I. as a tool to do their jobs better and to do things more efficiently and more effectively,” he continued. “And in the best case, to put things onscreen that would be impossible to do.”
He then went on to use the entertainment medium of animation as an example. He talked about how animation used only to be hand-drawn but as it evolved with technology, it became completely (for the most part) computer-generated. Even with this evolution, the animation industry is still booming and has many more people employed.
“Remember how everybody fought home video? For several decades, the studios wouldn’t license movies to television,” he added. “So every advancement in technology in entertainment has been fought and then ultimately has turned out to grow the business. I don’t know that this would be any different.”