I tend to agree. A lot of freepers will react with "a pox on both their houses." I think that's a mistake. The writers and actors are striking against the Borg. I don't want a world in which a handful of global conglomerates completely controls the flow of all information, including cultural products. The streamers overexpanded. They are now talking consolidation. We could end up with six or fewer giants, vertically and horizontally integrated, in complete control and in a position to block out newcomers. And at that point, they will continue to look for synergies -- and I suspect one of the synergies will be a consolidation of DEI functions, with radical perspectives being imposed from the top down as industry standards binding across all platforms and extended downwards to all "partners."
If AI takes over completely, movies and tv shows will simply be computer based animations of scripts. And ChatGPT will write the scripts. The only humans in the loop will be the commissars at the streamers, who will decide what meets their DEI and message curation standards. You know ... the streamer execs who get together from time to time for photo ops around the conference table in the White House when a democrat is in residence. Or around the conference table somewhere else when a democrat is not in the White House, and the purpose of the meeting will be to ensure that the democrats never lose another election. Complete control of the flow of information and cultural messaging is game, set and match.
I want humans in the loop and an information and media ecosystem that allows independent and dissident perspectives an opportunity to reach the market.
I came across this today. I think it's pretty good: 2023 Actors Strike: Everything You Need to Know
The entire podcast is 30 minutes. If that exceeds your tolerance, go to 22:40. At that point, the presenter -- who has been pretty even handed to that point -- candidly admits that "this is where my editorializing begins." And at about 27:30, he hits the Borg directly. It's worth a watch. I've never seen this guy before and can't vouch for his other stuff, but I think he nails the strike issues.
Yes, there's room for criticism all around, but it's important to remember that most of the writers and actors aren't rich. Most of them aren't A-list. And their art form is in considerable danger of being completely automated. Which might not be a problem except that this would mean that the Borg -- they won't name it Minitru, but that's what it will be -- will control all information flows.
cc'ing the movie ping list.
Thanks for the post and link.
Well said, your whole post.
Bumping this to watch later.
“The BORG”...Good Point!
AI is only as good as the human running it.
The award shows required “diversity” or the show no matter how good, how popular do not “qualify” for any awards.
Hollywood has bent both knees to this requirement and will not produce any good shows.
Looker...
They’re pimp-daddies to the agents who are the pimps for the whorish actors.
In a *hundred years AI will be able to create movie characters targeted to appeal to different personality types. They’ll be much better than the ‘real’ people acting now.
(*A hundred years’ for AI is two human years...)
Interesting post but isn’t entertainment audience-driven. If we don’t watch or listen to something then it flops. Right now audiences seem to be losing interest in ‘woke’.
My wife and I enjoy the enormous amount of older shows that are available. The writers, actors and management can fight it out. The outcome is of no concern to us.
That is precisely what took place in the mainstream media! You are rightly concerned.
That was an excellent wrap-up. When technology changes rapidly, entire guilds of artisans get shut down, seemingly overnight; while the executives are insulated from the impact to a great degree. This industry has been hit hard by streaming and zooming, and cheapening the marketplace by glutting it with too many competitive products and shortened release times so that people can stream that latest film within days of the theater release.
The artisans feeling most of the hurt are the little guys trying to make ends meet—the production people whose lengthy list of names moviegoers walk out on as the credits are run at the end of the film. They are shut out of realistic residuals from streaming. And as the commentator said, these little people have no golden parachute. As a lifetime independant contractor on the print side of media, I felt that in my gut.
Twenty years ago, when people would say, "Wow, it must be so great to be producing content for a huge company like XYZ," my answer would be, "If they could get it done in China, they would." When I started out, the top American businesses had grown up in a few large cities, and your work day largely corresponded with the time zone in that location. In mid-career, a killing 24/7/365 schedule developed, as the corporate community started globalizing. Someone on one's "team" was awake and working somewhere around the globe at all times, and might call you in the middle of your night to discuss the fine details of a project on which a lot of money was riding. If you missed a typo and a big mogul was offended, you as a contractor would simply be "out." Some star-struck recent graduate would be eager to take your place.
This commentary correctly understands that the power players in this struggle are no longer the studio heads, but the executives of the handful of huge "media'n'enterntainment" conglomerates that derive much of their profit from a widely diversified line products and consumer offerings—the movie, the book about the movie, the coloring book, the action figures, the video game, the theme park ride, the publicity articles, the special events, the t-shirts, the candies, the licensing of the characters' images, the soundtrack, the stars' personal appearances, the reruns....