Succession writer: 鈥淚鈥檓 pretty worried鈥� about A.I.
Lucy Prebble says A.I. presents a threat to screenwriters and is already being used
Acclaimed British playwright and screenwriter Lucy Prebble says she鈥檚 鈥減retty worried鈥� about entertainment companies using A.I. to replace the work of writers. Speaking to the 麻豆约拍鈥檚 HARDtalk programme, Prebble said: 鈥淚 do think it is worrying鈥t is a cost saving exercise and I do believe they are already doing things like cutting trailers quietly with A.I.鈥�
Prebble, whose writing credits include Succession and I Hate Suzie on television, and Enron and A Very Expensive Poison in the theatre, told Stephen Sackur that A.I. presents big copyright issues. She said she had experimented with basic A.I. by asking it to 鈥榳rite in the style of Lucy Prebble鈥�. 鈥淵ou recognise what it鈥檚 drawing from鈥� she said. 鈥淚t isn鈥檛 necessarily of a high quality鈥ut I鈥檓 reading them and I鈥檓 thinking 鈥榦k so you are drawing on material that鈥檚 available from me鈥� so there鈥檚 a copyright issue there that鈥檚 rarely discussed鈥�.
Most concerning, warned Prebble, is that 鈥渋t may not be sophisticated yet but it will be one day. Really sophisticated鈥�.
The Writers Guild of America 鈥� which represents 11,500 screenwriters 鈥� has been on strike since May this year, over an ongoing labour dispute with the studios and streamers. The strike is in part over concern about the use of A.I.
But the multiple award-winning Prebble, whose play The Effect is currently running at the National Theatre in London, is optimistic that audiences will be able to tell a difference between work created by humans versus A.I. 鈥淭here鈥檚 something about art that means that human beings are more affected the more effort they know has gone in to something鈥� she said. 鈥淚f A.I. was generating content in the way that they wanted it to, it would actually be less emotionally valuable to people. As long as they knew A.I. was creating it鈥�. And she said that 鈥渟tudios and streamers don鈥檛 realise鈥�.that audiences will respond鈥� differently.
