Hollywood Unions Reject AI 'Apocalypse' Narrative

As leaders from major AI firms including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and X call for a development slowdown, Hollywood's labor unions are urging the public to ignore the apocalyptic rhetoric and focus on current industry impacts.

According to reporting from The Verge, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) are not buying into the narrative of an AI-driven extinction event. Duncan Crabtree Ireland, chief negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, told The Verge that while he is concerned about broader societal implications, he views some existential warnings as potentially overblown hyperbole used by AI companies to generate buzz.

Crabtree Ireland noted that the "recklessness" and "dishonesty" of tech oligarchs make it difficult to trust warnings coming from billionaires who profited from the technology. However, he acknowledged that former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who left his position to sound the alarm, has gained public traction. This follows warnings from Anthropic alignment lead Evan Hubinger, who suggested the technology could "kill all humans" within the next decade.

Unlike the systems sparking these existential fears, the AI tools used in entertainment focus on replicating filmmaking tools and creating digital facsimiles of actors, posing a direct threat to human jobs. SAG-AFTRA has worked to implement enforceable guardrails with major employers who produce professional entertainment content in the U.S. to protect members' livelihoods.

When asked for comment regarding these warnings, studios including Disney, Netflix, Amazon, and Lionsgate, as well as various generative AI startups, did not respond to The Verge.