For a few weeks now, the actors and screenwriters’ strike in Hollywood has put the industry in check. There have been weeks of protests and claims of a guild that feels attacked, among other things, by Artificial Intelligence technology. It is a battle centred on a single person and a single tool that is sure to be talked about, as the outcome is uncertain.
On 25 July, the famous actor Bryan Cranston (‘Breaking Bad’) gave a speech in Times Square, during a picket of actors, and directly addressed Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney: “We have a message for Mr. Iger. We know you look at things differently, we don’t expect you to understand who we are. But we ask him to hear us and even listen to us when we tell him that he’s not going to take our jobs and give them to robots.”
The film industry against Bob Iger
It is practically a war between Bob Iger and the entire sector of actors and screenwriters in Hollywood, the collective called SAG-AFTRA. Among their demands are better pay, a fairer distribution of profits and uncertainty about the advance of Artificial Intelligence, which could take their jobs. However, the employer said flatly that “no one will stop technological advancement”. And that the claims were “not realistic”.
But the surprise has come with information from the Hollywood Reporter, which has found that movie majors are looking to hire AI experts. Disney, for example, wants people for its Imagineering team with a clear profile, with “the ambition to push the boundaries of what AI tools can create and understand the difference between the voice of data and the voice of a designer writer or artist”.
Job offers from the Majors
They are looking for a person to work “with third-party studios, universities, organisations and developers to evaluate, adopt and integrate the latest in generative AI”. In terms of salary, they are offering $180,000 a year plus possible bonuses and compensation.
Netflix, meanwhile, is also looking for people with AI expertise, such as an AI product manager, with a salary of $900,000 per year.
