(Day 13/60): No more ‘Stranger Things’ on Netflix!? “Because of A.I....”
Production of the fifth and final season of Netflix’s smash has been haulted
Production of the fifth and final season of Netflix’s smash "Stranger Things" has been halted by the strike. Analysts now believe that the strike by 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America will last through the summer. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is basically a union that connects writers to movies, TV, and online content. They negotiate contracts that make sure writers get paid fairly and have decent working conditions. Plus, they provide health and retirement plans. It's all about supporting the writing community.
What are they fighting over?
A.I.
Why should you care?
Back in '07, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike and took on the then-just-beginning streaming industry.
If A.I. is even half as big as streaming then this is something to pay attention to.
The writers were demanding better residuals for content that was being released through streaming platforms, and they weren't backing down. It was a major moment for labor rights in the entertainment industry, and now A.I. is the newest tech to cause a strike.
The Union has been very apparent, and even published negotiations for the public. When I read what they’re asking for… I find it so silly. They want a minimum 'staff of 6 writers in the writing room as a way to ‘preserve the writing room,’
To me, that sounds like an industry that is afraid of change. If a writer is truly worth paying to be in the writers room then they should be better at writing than A.I.
Further on in the published document the writers guild asks for regulations against AI so that it can’t use their work as source material. I 1000% get where they are coming from, but practically speaking this is like writing a note to lime wire and saying ‘please stop putting my music on the internet.’
Where as, the highly intelligent move wasn’t to complain, but rather it was to call iTunes and figure out how to get your music on the internet, on their homepage.
The writers have a similar opportunity, if an A.I. model could legally train on data from Steven Spielberg’s movies, then he could forever collect royalties from his influence. He would just simply need to add a clause stating that the publisher couldn’t claim it was written by the ‘real Spielberg.’
In short, the Writer’s should accept AI, just as the music industry accepted streaming.
Cool video of the day
Other news…
We sold our first ever annual subscription to Metaverse Monday yesterday!
!!
Stay tuned as we are going to give a BIG ‘thank you’ to that person and their VR startup for being our first believer. They purchased an annual subscription for $80/yr. So…. we basically just hit $1M ARR. If they remain a subscriber for 12,500 years at the current price then we are already at a $1M run rate #StartupMath
Just last week Laurie and I came together wanting to test out if there was a market opportunity for a VR/AR newsletter, and having our first subscriber gives us hope that we can do this! Thank you :)
I launched our RSVP page for The Unfundiscovered Artists’s Music Hackathon yesterday — if you know anyone who works in the music business please share that article with them!
I’ve begun to set up our Kickstarter page for my first client, really excited to launch and see what kind of response we get! Spoke with the KS team the other day, and they seem equally as excited to get behind this mission.
