Netflix has placed an ad for a product manager of a machine learning platform with an annual salary of $300,000 to $900,000, while at the same time actors and writers are striking for fair pay and protection from the encroachment of artificial intelligence, The Guardian reports. According to the Screen Actors Guild (Sag-Aftra), 87% of actors in the guild are paid less than $26,000 a year.
The use of artificial intelligence in the creation of movies and TV shows – to write scripts, generate actor likenesses, or reduce the cost of creative work – has been the most contentious topic in negotiations between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and Sag and the Writers Guild of America (WGA).
The writers went on strike in May, with many popular actors including Tom Cruise and George Clooney joining earlier this month. It’s the first joint strike since the 1960s and threatens to change Hollywood forever.
The post, first reported by The Intercept, is something new that aims to “increase the use of our machine learning platform,” billed as “the foundation of all this innovation.” The post, however, lists vague qualifications related to machine learning, but hints at the company’s more far-reaching goals for artificial intelligence in “all areas of business.” A separate “machine learning” section on the company’s website says it will use AI to “shape our catalogue of films and TV shows by learning the features that make content successful”, and to “optimise the production of original films and TV shows”.
This isn’t the only new AI position sought by Netflix. The Intercept reported that the company is also looking to hire a technical director for generative AI at its game studio for a pay of up to $650,000 a year. Artificial intelligence can create text, images and video from input that can be used to create original content or for advertising purposes.
Earlier this month, Netflix premiered the new Spanish dating reality series “Deep Fake Love,” in which scans of participants’ faces and bodies are used to create “deepfake” simulations of themselves, and the company’s games division uses AI to create narratives and dialogue.
However, according to the AMPTP, the breakthrough of Artificial Intelligence across the film industry will change the perception of cinema forever and leave thousands of talented actors out of work, including celebrity darlings around the world.
