Mind The Gap: Episode 21: Hollywood Adventures in GenAI

The entertainment industry in the US, with revenues in 2022 of about 8.5 billion dollars, is only three hundredths of one percent of the 23.3 trillion dollar US economy. However, entertainment is far more important to society as a whole than the industry’s financials might suggest. In 2022 when large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini began to show signs of prodigious capabilities in the entertainment domain, studios began to experiment with using AI in lieu of actors and writers. In response to the refusal by the studios to negotiate guardrails for the use of AI, the unions representing the writers and actors went out on strike and forced negotiations. The agreements concerning the status of generative AI that were instrumental in settling the strikes are a tremendously important step in establishing governance of AI in operational practice, at least for one industry. These agreements may hold important lessons for other industries. We are fortunate to have as our guest for this episode Louise Nemschoff, who practices entertainment and copyright law in Los Angeles. She represents a wide variety of parties in both domestic and international transactions.