In Code We Trust
AI scripts begin to flood producers' desks amidst WGA strike.
Before we get into this post, I want to invite you to General Seminar on May 17th where we’ll be discussing Futures of Storytelling in light of the current WGA Strike. Sign Up at GeneralSeminar.com
On with today’s entry:
While navigating the notorious LA traffic amidst the writers' strike, I found myself yearning for a time past the gridlock. So I set the dials on the janky time machine for a not-too-distant timeline. An intriguing thought about the influence of the strike led me to an unexpected discover. Hollywood studios, it seems, are now swamped with an avalanche of scripts. A sea of potential content, all written by AI, sitting on every producer's desk, waiting to be discovered.
it appears that an aspiring writer, or even a non-writer, can just download a genre pack, say sci-fi or romance, tweaking a few elements of the Hero’s Journey, selecting from a library of McGuffins, and shaping their characters as easily as filling in a madlib. Within a mere 30 seconds of hitting the “write'“ button, voìla, a fresh script appears. Now, extrapolate this process to every hopeful “writer” striving for their big break in Hollywood, and you begin to comprehend the overwhelming wave of mediocrity that we are facing in this timeline.
The lament is that the entertainment industry has gradually diminished the quality bar, often placing spectacle over story, subtly conditioning audiences to expect less from their entertainment. The result? Even films that prioritize spectacle over substance continue to shatter box office records. **cough**Marvel**cough** Interestingly, it seems AI screenwriting bots are capable of producing similar quality work at the simple push of a button.
Curiosity piqued, I decided to experience one of these AI-generated movies first-hand. A poster for "Trust Protocol" that I spotted on a subway platform seemed to be a fitting introduction to this new era of filmmaking.
I snagged a better quality version of the movie poster for you below, along with a leaked sample of the AI script (as a PDF) that landed the movie deal.