The Writers Guild of America went on strike as major studios and streaming platforms refused to agree to the terms of the striking writers. These studios know that they have a secret weapon that they believe will change the landscape of Hollywood forever, and that weapon is Artificial Intelligence. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: Hollywood is done. What we think of as traditional Hollywood is done. It’s been replaced by AI. They can do a script from AI. They can write the dialogue from AI. They can create the characters from AI. They can create the voice from AI. They can create all the technical hoops that have to be jumped through to produce. It is astounding. If you take just a minute and go online and just see what people in their home are doing. If you’re in this business, buddy, you need to go find another job. That’s what I’d recommend. And find out how to do AI and you got a better shot at making money the rest of your life.
Farron Cousins: Well, and it’s very unfortunate because I know, obviously we support these writers.
Mike Papantonio: Of course we do.
Farron Cousins: They deserve everything that they’re asking for. And unfortunately, when you do look down the road and you see these studios already starting to turn to AI, you realize that this may be a fight that ultimately you can win. But that victory’s not gonna last very long. Because what we see now happening is that the creativity of these individuals, which is unique, not just with the editors, with the set designers, everything. So much talent and creativity. We’ve now programmed computers that can just do it.
Mike Papantonio: Scrape it.
Farron Cousins: Probably not as good, but good enough to where you pay $10 instead of paying a hundred people.
Mike Papantonio: And the studio doesn’t pay $20 million for an actor to act the part, or $10 million for a voice. That’s what’s happening. And it’s almost like they’re whistling through the graveyard and not understanding there’s a reason that the studios are taking the avenue that, these are greedy punks. The studio management, they’re greedy, ugly punks. And what they’ve done as far as, they’ve actually pulled up the sidewalks in front of the areas where these folks were trying, they pulled up the sidewalks. They’re blaring noise. They’re doing everything they can to interfere. Why? That’s called reckless abandon, Farron. Look, go look at, there’s a movie called Safe Zone, written, directed, shot, everything by AI. Actors by AI, voice by AI. Journey to the Center of the Earth. These things are popping up everywhere. And if you go online, you’ll actually see where they’re now teaching everybody how to do this in their home. You can make a movie in your home. So I think the idea of celebrity, you know, celebrity’s not gonna mean anything anymore. And I guess the thing that strikes me is it’s almost like they are ignoring the obvious. But the answer is it’s not gonna change. It’s not gonna change. It’s gonna get worse. It’s a new paradigm.
Farron Cousins: It really is. And as AI continues to evolve, and we’re seeing it evolve at a alarming rate at this point. I mean, six months, not even six months ago, three months ago, we’re sitting here talking about the idiot lawyer who used AI to write a legal brief. And it’s made up all the fake cases. But we’re already way past that. That’s ancient history in the world of AI at this point. And we’ve had our guys kind of play around with it a little bit, write scripts for little skits we do.
Mike Papantonio: Oh, let me announce you’re not real. You know, you’re computer generated.
Farron Cousins: I’ve been sitting at home for eight months now. But yeah, it’s terrifying what it can do. And it could, it could replace me someday. Sure. Absolutely.
Mike Papantonio: Go look at Pika Labs, P I K A labs, Farron, look at Runway labs. Here you’ve got generate, they generate scripts. They generate dialogue. They generate voices. They create voices. They create genders. Male, female, age, nationality. You know how they do it, focus groups. They say, okay, why did everybody like say Mel Gibson or whoever, why did everybody like Tom Cruise for this movie? They sit them in a room for days and they figure out what is that essential part of Tom Cruise that people liked? Why did the movie sell like it did? And then they just say, okay, we’re not gonna use Tom Cruise, but we’re gonna take all these essential elements and build that person with that voice, with that look, with that attitude. And we’re gonna create an actor and we’re gonna write a script based on. Here’s the other part I think is so interesting. There’s discussion that the reason we’re seeing so much DC and Marvel comic book kind of stuff is because there aren’t any new formulas out there. They don’t make comedies, they don’t make romance stories, they don’t make intrigue stories like as many as they used to because they’ve used all the formulas. So at this point, AI just scrapes all those formulas and creates a movie. These people are in deep, deep trouble right now. That’s the problem.
Farron Cousins: And speaking of the formulas, they actually did a study a couple years ago. You know, every Christmas season you got the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime, they put out all their Christmas movies, it’s always the same formula. The woman meets the man. She doesn’t like Christmas or he doesn’t like Christmas, whatever it is. But they found that people actually really like that predictable formula. It makes them feel good.
Mike Papantonio: Yes. Yes.
Farron Cousins: And AI is able to create that with any genre. The predictability, I know everybody says, oh, well, I like the twists and turns, and sure those are good. But deep down, studies have proven people like the predictability where they can feel smarter saying, I know what’s gonna happen next and AI gives it to them. And it’s scary. It truly is.
Mike Papantonio: That’s the reason there aren’t that many movies like Sixth Sense to where you’re going, what the hell? At the end of the movie, you’re going, what? I didn’t see that coming. So the idea is get rid of these folks. Get rid of the people that are out there holding up signs. Get rid of the creators. Get rid of the grip people. Get rid of everybody. Save hundreds of millions of dollars so those greedy freaks running management can put more money in their pocket. That’s what this is about.
