Source:
https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-kb39z-14ba24a

The Writer’s Guild of America strike has come to an end with the approval of a deal effective September 25, 2023 through May 1, 2026. The writers secured significant gains in one of the major areas of concern, use of AI in their work. In this episode we talk about the implications of this deal for creatives and PR pros.
 
Transcript
Michelle Kane (00:03):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters, and my ever wonderful co-host Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen, how are you doing today?
Karen Swim, APR (00:19):
Hey, Michelle. I'm doing great. How are you?
Michelle Kane (00:22):
Good. Rolling along. Rolling along. It's all we can do these days.
Karen Swim, APR (00:27):
It's rolling pretty quickly. I cannot believe, even though we have been so focused on calendars and all of the things, I swear it feels like we weren't from July to here we are end of September in a day. That's what it feels like.
Michelle Kane (00:44):
Yes, yes. It feels like as I near the close of every month, I say, what a ride.
Karen Swim, APR (00:51):
Yeah.
Michelle Kane (00:53):
So yes, definitely. We are in interesting times as ever. It just seems like the items of interest are the things that change, which leads us to our topic today when this podcast has hit, I believe in fact, well, I believe they have voted, but the WGA, the writer’s strike is over after, gosh, what was it, over 140 days. It was since May of this year they have been on strike.
Karen Swim, APR (01:28):
Yeah, it was 146 days. Very long strike.
Michelle Kane (01:33):
Yes. But in their holding on, they reached what you could call historic gains regarding the use of AI in writing, which is something we've touched on a lot here and we enjoy the many good things about using AI. But as this writer strike has definitely brought to light, there are of course some concerns about how is this going to affect how they do their work, how they are fairly compensated for their work. So we’re going to dive in a little bit about that today and just AI and tech in general. So let's do it. So the big takeaway that the writers gained was that they can choose to use AI when performing writing services with consent from their production partners, but they can't be forced to do so, which I thought was a pretty big gain. It's not like they can just say “Here, just AI this script for the next sitcom.”
Karen Swim, APR (02:39):
Yeah, I think it's historic in that we are in this time where automation technology is really taking front and center in many industries. Surprisingly, technology is also a big negotiation point in the UAW strike, which living here in Michigan that looms very large and is very much front page news. And as with, I think, back to other times when there were big technological leaps like the internet, when that became accessible and we started to be able to read news and gain information on the internet. When you have these big shifts in the way that you do work, unfortunately laws rights are not keeping pace with the speed of innovation. And so there's always this tension point between moving from the past and moving toward the future. What I think is really interesting about this is that we're learning and the writers’ strike. They're not saying that AI is terrible, don't use it, don't ever use it.
(03:58):
Let's go backwards. They're embracing the future and grappling with, okay, yes, we want to use this tool. We think that it has some efficiencies, it has some greatness, but they're fighting to keep the humanity and their talent and their skillset. And as sophisticated as AI is becoming right before our very eyes, I do not think that we should ever be so lax to believe that a technological device, no matter how well trained it is, can replace the creativity of the human mind, period. Whether that's working visually, strategic planning. I mean, there are things that AI can and cannot do. And so I think that this strike the spillover to every industry has really put workers' rights front and center, but also front and center, that we need to value what people really bring to the table.
Michelle Kane (05:04):
That is so, so true. I mean, not that we want to think back to the pandemic, but what got us through it was the art that these creators created to at a time when we could not be together as we were used to being, we at least got to still think and have emotions thanks to binging Netflix for weeks on it. So I am very glad that they got this deal because not that I have any say, but I think it is a good deal because it's like you say, AI is not the devil. It can be a great tool and as we've been saying all along, rather than just closing off to it and thinking, Ugh, this tech is going to take my job, it's going to be terrible. We need to embrace it because those of us who do