The Hollywood crisis could soon get worse. Artificial intelligence, one of the main grievances raised by actors and screenwriters alike, has once again become a point of contention between the major studios and those on strike. Several job postings from companies such as Netflix, Disney or Sony started to appear offering large contracts to AI specialists, which sparked controversy.
The first to do so was Netflix. Days after the actors began their hiatus, the streaming platform posted a job listing. It was looking for a product manager for a machine learning platform. The position would be based in California and pay up to $900,000 per year.
The reaction from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) was not long in coming. American comedian and actor Rob Delaney expressed anger, noting that such a salary could pay for more than 30 actors’ health insurance, The Intercept reported.
So $900k/yr per soldier in their godless AI army when that amount of earnings could qualify thirty-five actors and their families for SAG-AFTRA health insurance is just ghoulish. Having been poor and rich in this business, I can assure you there’s enough money to go around; it’s just about priorities.
The statements had no effect. Netflix kept the offer, and Disney also decided to employ the same strategy. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Disney had also posted generous job offers. Most of them belonged to the "Imagineering" team, the people in charge of designing Disneyland or Walt Disney World attractions. One promised a base salary of up to $180,000 per year.
Candidates, who would become part of the Imagineer R&D team, must be an expert in generative artificial intelligence and are required to have the "ambition to push the limits of what AI tools can create and understand the difference between the voice of data and the voice of a designer, writer or artist." In addition, they would work with "third party studios, universities, organizations, and developers to evaluate, adopt, and integrate the latest generative AI."
Hollywood studios offer $160,000 to $300,000 to AI experts
Hollywood studios also appear to be on the hunt for new employees, in this case for someone who would directly develop technology for the company's televisions and platforms. On this occasion, it offered a position as a machine learning engineer in the Disney Streaming Advanced Research division. In this job, the prospective employees would serve as "responsible for creating AI-enabled solutions for Disney+, Star+, and ESPN+." Specifically, they would develop the business to create "advanced personalization efforts involving digital avatars."
These studios are not the only ones. Several job search platforms started to receive offers from companies such as Amazon, Sony, Apple and even Warner Bros. They all had published several job offers with salaries ranging from $160,000 to $300,000 per year.
All of them assured that it was simply a technological investment, just as many other companies in other sectors had done. However, for actors and screenwriters, with the use of AI in Hollywood still mostly unregulated, they see this technology more as a threat than a tool.
