Hollywood strikes and artificial intelligence

[The Laughing Fish]

There's a threat of another strike looming in the industry. This time it concerns the people working behind the scenes on film and TV sets.

https://variety.com/2024/artisans/news/iatse-teamsters-strike-rally-hollywood-1235925985/

Jackie Martinez, a costumer, said she was worried that AI could be used to take away jobs.

"AI is definitely a threat," she said. "Producers, I feel, are also trying to reduce our crew numbers in our departments... That's how they're trying to save money: using less of us."

Another costumer, Caitlin Dolittle, said that AI also threatens to change the way her job is done.

"The second that you start automatically generating bodies, they already have clothes on them," she said. "What am I supposed to do? One of my favorite parts of this job is interacting with background actors and creating individual characters to create texture and scenes. Having a computer generate that is not it."

Valid concerns, and when you have union people calling studios white-collar crime syndicates, you know the tension there is at an all-time high. They have until July to work this out, AMPTP would be insane to let another strike happen.