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Among the many reasons why Hollywood actors have joined screenwriters in a historic industry-stopping strike are calls for better pay, plus greater protections against the rise of artificial intelligence in developing scripts or using artistโs likenesses in movie and TV productions.ย
So it shouldnโt come as a surprise that Netflix
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is catching some heat for posting several AI-related positions paying six-figure salaries, even as the Writers Guild of America strike enters its fourth month. Netflix currently has at least five open positions with โAIโ or โmachine learningโ in the job title posted on LinkedIn within the last month. One, described as โProduct Manager, Machine Learning Platform,โ would pay between $300,000 to $900,000 a year. In the product manager listing, Netflix writes that AI is โpowering innovation in all areas,โ and it helps the streaming giant โbuy and create great content.โ
Rob Delaney, who recently starred in a โBlack Mirrorโ episode (โJoan is Awfulโ) on Netflix that featured a studio manipulating actorsโ digital likenesses against their will, suggested that Netflixโs AI job salaries could be used to better compensate writers and actors.ย
โSo $900k/yr per soldier in their godless AI army, when that amount of earnings could qualify 35 actors and their families for SAG-AFTRA health insurance, is just ghoulish,โ Delaney told The Intercept. โHaving been poor and rich in this business, I can assure you thereโs enough money to go around; itโs just about priorities.โ
Roughly 87% of SAG-AFTRA members make less than $26,000 a year from their acting jobs, according to members, making them ineligible for health coverage through the union.
Elizabeth Benjamin, a writer on Netflix shows including โDead to Meโ and โ13 Reasons Why,โ said the Netflix job posting โturns my stomachโ in a post on X.com, formerly known as Twitter.ย
โStar Trek: Picardโ and โThe Equalizerโ writer Christopher Derrick called the job posting โtone deaf.โย
Netflix did not respond to MarketWatchโs request for comment on this story.
The WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have failed to reach an agreement on issues surrounding AI, residual payments and length of employment agreements, among many other concerns. The AMPTP is made up of major movie studios and streaming companies, including Netflix, Disney, Universal Pictures and Sony Pictures
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In July, the SAG-AFTRA union, which represents TV and movie actors, joined the striking writers on the picket line. The actors are advocating for higher royalty checks, and they are also concerned about the threat of the unregulated use of AI, such as the use of their likenesses without hiring them.
Specifically, the WGA says it wants to ensure AI wonโt write or rewrite literary material, that it wonโt be used as source material, and that union-covered material wonโt be used to train AI. The WGA says the AMPTP rejected those proposals, and countered by committing to annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology.
โI think it is a real concern,โ Marvel writer and actor Clark Gregg said about using AI in creating TV and film projects.โI think whatโs especially scary about it is nobody, including a lot of people who are involved with creating it, seem to be able to explain exactly what itโs capable of, and how quickly it will be capable of doing more.โ
Other Hollywood A-listers have weighed in on the use of AI in TV and film, too.
โThe wages are one thing, but the worst aspect is the whole idea of AI and what AI can do to us,โ said โSuccessionโ star Brian Cox said at a recent rally supporting the joint strikes. โAI is the really, really serious thing. And itโs the thing where weโre most vulnerable.โย
Cox, 77, added that AI in entertainment is โscaryโ, and added itโs the โthe worst aspectโ of the writersโ and actorsโ fight against movie studios and streaming companies.
Christopher Nolan, writer and director of films including โOppenheimerโ and โThe Dark Knight,โ has also said AI has โterrifying possibilitiesโ in entertainment.
Of course, Netflix isnโt the only streaming company or film studio that is interested in harnessing artificial intelligence to enhance its brand. Disney
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also has several open AI job postings, ranging from generative artificial intelligence to machine learning engineers, and so does Amazon
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Prime Video.
Disneyโs CEO Bob Iger recently caught some flak for calling out the actors joining the writers on strike. โThis is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption,โ he said about the dualing strikes. โThereโs a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic.โ
Many striking writers and actors have railed back against Igerโs comments, including โBreaking Badโ star Bryan Cranston.
โI know, sir, that you look [at] things through a different lens. We donโt expect you to understand who we are,โ Cranston, 67, said at a rally in New York on Tuesday. โBut we ask you to hear us, and beyond that to listen to us when we tell you we will not be having our jobs taken away and given to robots.โ
Big companies across the world outside of the entertainment industry are also talking about and investing in AI, but many workers are still tepid. According to a CNBC survey last week, 69% of Americans say they are โnot comfortableโ with AI, although only 18% of respondents said they thought AI could replace them at work.
From May 2023: Are Hollywood writing jobs the next frontier for gig work? Hereโs what a striking writer says.
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