Barry Diller on Sunday warned of an “absolute collapse of an entire industry” if the strike by Hollywood writers and actors isn’t resolved soon. But the billionaire media mogul and ex-Paramount Pictures CEO dismissed the threat of artificial intelligence, telling Face the Nation that it’s “overly hyped” and won’t replace human talent in the movies business.
Many humans aren’t so sure. This week about 65,000 actors represented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists walked off sets. They joined more than 11,000 TV and script writers represented by the Writers Guild of America who have been on strike since May. It’s the first time in more than six decades that two major Hollywood unions have simultaneously been on strike.
Performers and writers have warned that A.I. poses a danger to their livelihoods, with Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director of SAG-AFTRA, calling it an “existential threat” this week. They’re also worried about reduced pay in the streaming era.
“The jig is up,” added Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA and former star of The Nanny. “The entire business model has been changed by streaming, digital, A.I. If we don’t stand tall right now, we’re all going to be in trouble.”
Diller on Sunday countered that A.I. is “overhyped to death” and that “writers will get assisted, not replaced by it,” while “most of these actual performing crafts, I don’t think they are in danger of artificial intelligence.”
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said they had offered up “a groundbreaking A.I. proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members,” but Crabtree-Ireland scoffed at that.
“This ‘groundbreaking’ A.I. proposal that they gave us yesterday, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get one day’s pay, and their companies should own that scan, their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity on any project they want, with no consent and no compensation,” he said. “So if you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”
AMPTP spokesperson Scott Rowe denied those claims, stating that his side’s proposal “only permits a company to use the digital replica of a background actor in the motion picture for which the background actor is employed.”
Diller on Sunday called for a settlement deadline of Sept. 1 and warned of “the absolute collapse of an entire industry.”
“If in fact it doesn’t get settled until Christmas or so, then next year, there’s not going to be many programs for anybody to watch,” he said. “So, you’re gonna see subscriptions get pulled, which is going to reduce the revenue of all these movie companies, television companies, the result of which is that there will be no programs.” When the strike is settled and “you want to get back up,” he added, “there won’t be enough money. So this actually will have devastating effects if it is not settled soon.”
Diller, who chairs the media holding company IAC, said that he’s more concerned about the impact of generative A.I. on the publishing industry than on Hollywood. “Unless you protect copyright,” he said, “all is lost.”
