At the time of this writing, WGA has not responded to The Federalist’s request for comment on how AI could affect employment opportunities for writers or how its utilization will affect the artistic process of filmmaking, but one can reasonably speculate that overreliance on it in storytelling — in the short to medium terms — could result in an abundance of visual stimulation with little to no actual substance.

Artificial intelligence lacks human qualities that are essential to the creation and interpretation of art. It does not possess creativity, imagination, intentionality, or a human soul, but it is capable of incredibly advanced algorithmic curations in which it can access and process a wealth of digitized information in nanoseconds. But art is inherently an expression of the human experience, not of machine learning; even if studios are able to fully incorporate these systems into the screenwriting process, they jeopardize the very nature of the craft they turn into a product.

But, of course, this would require corporate studios to prioritize storytelling instead of laundering leftist talking points into the public consciousness.

[Besides the thematic thrust of the article, the essay offers up a fairly sympathetic view of the writers’ position in this labor dispute. It’s worth reading for the nuanced reporting. I believe the push toward reality TV is more damaging to their overall potential earnings than AI, even if the reality series are somewhat scripted (as they are), because of Mangold-Lenett’s point about the lack of authentic human quality. Dialogue is especially hard to write well … as George Lucas proved in the prequel trilogy, and practically every Star Wars script that he personally wrote. — Ed]