Out of the eight values of free expression, the one that has really resonated with me is number seven; “promote innovation.” I have kept a close eye on the continuing writers and actors strikes against the multimillion dollar studios that they work for. I have found it to be a really interesting moment in history that we are living through, especially when viewing it through the lens of innovation and freedom of speech.
The lynchpin of the complaints of the strikes has to deal with how large studios are using new, emerging artificial intelligence technologies. For writers, they are upset about how some studios have used AI to rewrite scripts and then underpay writers because they can claim that the final script was written by the AI with the actual writer just being a co-writer. This is on top of third party AI companies, like ChatGPT, making transformative content by using other writers’ work with no compensation. (OpenAI is a billion-dollar company. Writers deserve more for their contribution to its success) For actors, they are worried about the new face tracking softwares that is rapidly improving as studios have already proven that these programs can recreate a person’s face doing or saying anything with only footage of that person. () We already saw this in the recent movie, “The Flash” (2023) that was produced by Warner Brothers. In this movie, they recreated George Reeves and Christopher Reeve to make new scenes of them by using old footage and new AI face tracking programs. (The Flash Bringing Dead Actors Back With CGI Is Disgusting) This is incredibly concerning for actors because any one of them could be eliminated from being in any new jobs because they have been replaced by a digital copy of themselves. Studios are making the argument that this is perfectly legal as the digital reconstructions are made from recycled footage that the studios own. However, some people noted how sad it was that Reeve’s face was used in this despite his own disapproval of movies like “The Flash,” “What the majors do is take what grossed $100 million domestically last year and get the key ingredients back again and try to pump it up a few more times. Of course, the quality is a sliding scale of diminishing returns.” (Christopher Reeve Probably Would Have Hated His The Flash Cameo) It is truly sad to see the faces of the people we looked up to be manipulated like puppets in spite of their own beliefs.
Overall, I think that it is very interesting how new AI technologies and computer science innovations are being used by others to stifle the creativity and innovation of writers and actors. We have come to this point where one group’s innovation is going to need to be stifled for the sake of the other. If the government did step in to make new AI technology research illegal, they would be controlling the innovation of computer science engineers, which falls under the eight values of free speech so would these engineers have the right to make a constitutional claim. If that happens, it could easily lead to another Supreme Court case where a potentially immoral or unethical ruling could be made because it is upheld by a Constitution written by people who could not even imagine technology as complex as artificial intelligence. If this were to happen, I imagine the public outcry could easily reach heights comparable to that of the recent Roe v Wade turnover in 2022. New technology has immense potential to do good or bad and the writers and actors are trying to make this clear now, so the people can make the right decision on how to wield this new power.
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