Oscar-nominated screenwriter Billy Ray is warning Hollywood about the dangers that generative artificial intelligence represents to the entertainment industry. Ray, whose credits include Shattered Glass, Captain Phillips, The Hunger Games, and many more, recently spoke about the problems that AI could raise for Hollywood, especially OpenAI’s ChatGPT feature. Ray says he flatly refuses to use ChatGPT because of the “existential threat” AI represents to storytelling and professional writing.
Ray has a passel of worries over AI. For instance, he says AI will serve to obscure the line between what is human generated and what is artificially generated, especially if there is a lack of transparency on where and when AI is used during the creative process.
The screenwriter says AI has already entered the entertainment industry and is being used in script development, casting, marketing, storyboarding, and other areas. He calls it all “a cancer masquerading as a profit center,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
“My level of impostor syndrome, neuroticism and guilt is high enough while I’m working my ass off,” Ray told the paper in an interview last month. “There’s no way I’d make myself feel worse by letting a machine do my writing for me. Zero interest.”
Ray is so opposed to the use of AI that he feels the 2023 writer’s strike didn’t go far enough to restrict its use. And he warns that studios executives and streamers are quietly exploring how they can use AI to eliminate human contributions to films and TV.
“What I’m hearing anecdotally is that studios and streamers are putting more and more time and energy into exploring what AI can do for them,” he exclaimed. “The result will inevitably be chaos, bad movies, bad TV shows and a lot of people out of work.”
A studio image shows an iPhone with the new ChatGPT ”Search” feature, while the OpenAI logo is displayed in the background. The new feature allows users to perform searches directly from the ChatGPT app, enhancing access to information through OpenAI’s artificial intelligence, on November 13, 2024. (Photo by Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The accomplished screenwriter also urged unions to work faster and it’s “going to be necessary” to define where and how AI can be used before it spins out of their control.
“We need to put firewalls in place before the next round of negotiations. I’m not telling writers they can’t use it,” he says, “but the public has a right to know when they’re watching something written by a human being. And I think they want to know.”
Like many others, Ray also worries that AI will eventually — and sooner, rather than later — gain control of its own destiny, cutting humans out of the mix.
“We as a species have a limited window to get control of AI and put guardrails around it, but we as writers have an even more limited window,” he insisted. “It makes no sense. If all Hollywood has to offer is a bunch of warmed-over AI bullshit, why would someone turn away from TikTok or YouTube?”
Ray is correct that the entertainment industry is salivating over the possibilities of AI. Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, for instance, recently hailed AI and said it will make TV “better, not just cheaper.” And film studio Lionsgate was proud to announce it is now using AI to “save millions” of dollars in production costs.
But creatives are far less happy over the prospects.
Prolific actor Nicolas Cage, for one, has raised the alarm over AI, and said he fears that once he dies, studios will “steal” his body and use AI to continue making Nicolas Cage movies without him in control of it all.
Actor Sean Penn also blasted AI and in 2023 said that using it will create a “human obscenity.”
Ron Nyswaner, the author of the film Philadelphia, also warned about AI this year when he said that it will create soulless dreck that will remove the possibility for artists and viewers to “think and feel.”
Many notable filmmakers have also spoken out against the use of artificial intelligence.
Producer, writer, and director James Cameron warned that AI will lead to a Judgement Day-style cataclysm with out-of-control algorithms taking control of warfare.
Director Ridley Scott of Blade Runner fame called AI bad for humanity, and compared it to a “technical hydrogen bomb.”
Christopher Nolan said AI will surely reach an “Oppenheimer moment” — or a point of no return — and that people need to be “held accountable” for its development.
On the other hand, actor Ashton Cutcher praised the coming of AI and said that it will level the playing field and democratize entertainment so that just anyone could make compelling films and TV shows. And Popular actress Reese Witherspoon also urged Hollywood to embrace AI and said, “let’s not be scared of it.”
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