AI is entertainment's scarlet letter
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The slightest hint of generative AI usage is fast becoming a kiss of death in creative circles.
Why it matters: It's turning into a purity test that has the potential to blow up careers and derail massive deals almost overnight — and there's no desire for nuance or ability to clear your name.
- Whether you choose disclosure or denial, both can fail to protect you in a climate where using a chatbot as a tool to guide one's thought process is viewed the same as generating creative work wholesale.
Driving the news: Creator Hank Green, who has over 3 million YouTube subscribers, used the phrase "I appreciate the pushback" in a recent video, causing some viewers to suspect that his script was AI generated given the phrase's resemblance to LLMs' response patterns.
- Green said that phrase was a non-scripted ad-lib, but did admit in a lengthy Reddit post to using AI as a research aid "to locate papers and other resources for learning about topics."
- He apologized for "diluting myself in this way and harming the thing that we have all built together" and said that his interactions with LLMs had become "not healthy for me or good for the world."
The big picture: The anti-AI sentiment extends to all corners of the entertainment industry.
- A $2 million book deal after a 14-way auction blew up last week amid rumors that the author, Jerry Falade, had utilized AI in some fashion.
- Falade denied using the tech to The Guardian, saying that it had passed multiple reading stages with agents and editors and "it is difficult to believe that every one of those experienced professionals would have failed to notice" any generative AI usage.
- Deadline reported that the reasoning ultimately came down to money. Any question of AI use might cause the book and any subsequent adaptations to be uncopyrightable.
Between the lines: With the technology still so new and the norms around it so unsettled, it's unclear where the tolerance level for AI use actually lies.
- As Heatmap's Matthew Zeitlin pointed out, Green "was actually experiencing AI-assisted productivity increases" — exactly what AI leaders say is one of the benefits of their products.
- Sometimes the confusion is about what even constitutes AI. Deadline caught flak over the weekend for a headline implying that director Gregg Araki had used it in his new film "I Want Your Sex" — but the tech in question was machine-learning-based audio processing that long predates LLMs.
The other side: Hollywood has drawn clear battle lines against the use of generative AI.
- Kane Parsons, who directed the summer smash hit "Backrooms," told The Australian earlier this summer: "If I could snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, I probably would."
- HBO Max's hit comedy Hacks devoted an entire episode in its final season to rail against the technology. Co-creator Paul Downs told Wired that he believes "trying to take the work and the struggle and the friction out of the creative process makes it not art."
- The Oscars also changed its rules this year to ensure that acting and writing prizes can't be awarded to generative AI creations, though it did say the tech "neither [helps] nor [harms] the chances of achieving a nomination" more broadly.
The bottom line: If someone should decide that your creative work sounds a little too much like Claude — whether you used it or not — good luck figuring your way out of that mess.
