The Big Picture
- Netflix is making a significant investment in artificial intelligence, as demonstrated by their job opening for an AI product manager offering a salary of $900,000.
- The company’s goal is to utilize AI to optimize content creation, addressing concerns raised by actors and writers who are on strike for fair compensation.
- There are concerns about potential negative consequences of AI, such as the unauthorized use of individuals’ likeness without consent or compensation.
Amidst the joint efforts of writers and actors on the picket line for the first time since 1960, Netflix has decided to further invest in artificial intelligence by posting a job opening for an AI product manager offering an impressive salary of $900,000. Protection against the negative impact of AI was a significant topic of negotiation for both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA with studios. These negotiations included demands for fairer pay and residual payments, but unfortunately, these demands were not considered “realistic” by the studios.
According to an article by The Intercept, the job description reveals that the focus of the role is on “increasing the leverage of our Machine Learning Platform” (MLP), which is Netflix’s AI program. While the MLP is currently used for generating algorithmic recommendations for users, the company is exploring its potential for “optimizing” content creation. Viewers of Netflix’s show Black Mirror will find this concept familiar, as a recent episode of the series parodied Netflix itself by portraying a streaming service that uses AI to create content using individuals’ likeness without their consent. In response to the job opening, the actor Rob Delaney, who starred in the episode mentioned above, expressed his concern about the prioritization of investing $900k/year in AI instead of using that money to support actors and their families with SAG-AFTRA health insurance.
While Black Mirror may be considered science fiction, each passing day brings us closer to a reality where AI can have significant implications. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA, highlighted one concern during negotiations: “They propose that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness, and be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation.” Realeyes, a company offering individuals $300 for two hours of work, is collecting data to “train an AI database to better express human emotions” by asking people to “express different emotions” and “improvise brief scenes.” The Intercept notes that although the job listing does not mention streaming services directly, Netflix and Hulu’s logos are prominently featured on the company’s website. Additionally, writers are concerned about the potential replacement of human staff by AI tools, leading to ongoing strikes by the WGA since May 7.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
