Striking writers explain why they must address AI 'plagiarism machines' now instead of later

BURBANK, Calif. (KABC) -- One of the priorities for striking writers is to address the growing threat of artificial intelligence and regulate the tool from taking jobs.

According to research by UBS, the AI tool Chat GPT, which launched late last year, reached 1 million users in a about a week. For perspective, Instagram took two and a half months to reach 1 million users and it took Facebook 10 months to reach 1 million users.

For writers, the fear isn't that AI -- which uses a number of previously written materials to synthesize a single work -- will be able to replace their creativity. The fear is that executives will use the "plagiarism machines" to replace their jobs.

"I don't know if writers should be afraid of the capabilities of large language models and AI because they don't really write, they're basically plagiarism machines. What we're afraid of is some executives will have the brilliant idea to disrupt the industry with AI, and leave us to pickup the wreckage after a couple years," said John Rodgers, a board member with the Writers Guild of America West.

Another WGA writer, Kevin Walker, concurred.

"AI often takes existing material, little pieces of it and builds together something coherent. But, it's not original just because it shuffled the deck of the material that it co-opted," said Andrew Kevin Walker, a striking TV writer.

Artificial intelligence isn't new, but certain programs like Chat GPT are where a producer could generate an entire script without paying a team of writers to do the work.

Alex Alben teaches internet law at UCLA and says AI will require the legal community to create new copyright law to ensure writers are paid for the use of their work.

"Certain forms of artificial intelligence are beneficial to the creative process whether that's being used for research or for first drafts and the important thing is being able to document the evolution of a script in other words to impose a standard that says, 'If you're going to go out and write a TV series, you have to list all your sources,'" said Alben.

Writers must list their sources so they can get paid. Copyright laws exist, but there isn't clarity yet in how they apply to artificial intelligence. And since contracts last three years, striking writers say now is the time to address AI.

"We set very specific parameters around it based on the nature of the work. It cannot be considered literary material. You cannot re-write with it. There must be a person associated with it and as a result, that will keep it constrained within what it is. A tool, not an end goal or a creator," said Rodgers.