‘Digging the grave of my profession’: the Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobs
Experienced Hollywood writers, directors, and producers are taking gig work training AI models on creative and production tasks, earning between $12 and $200 an hour. The work is driven by a wider industry jobs slump that has already tightened earnings across film and television.
Why this matters: When a screenwriter trains an AI to write screenplays, they are not just doing a side job. They are building the tool most likely to replace them. Studios get skilled labor cheap, twice — once for the training work, and again every time the model does what a human used to be paid to do. The people taking this work are not naive; many say they feel they have no choice. That is worth paying attention to. The choice between paying your rent now and protecting your profession long-term is not really a free choice at all.
Who should care: General readers · AI governance · Policy
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