“I told Chat GPT to write a sign, and it sucked,” reads the picket sign of one protester in the crowded streets of Los Angeles.
Another reads, “The CEOs have yachts. Writers have mortgages.”
In May of this year, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike. For 148 days, thousands of supporters, including countless well-known figures, picketed by the masses. Their cause? A labor dispute with AMPTP, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
Resulting in a record-breaking halt in the country’s television and film production, the 2023 Writers Strike gained immense public attention. Viewers noticed as their habitual shows, like Saturday Night Live, suddenly went off air.
With the upheaval of television and media, many wondered how the strike originated. Earlier this year, when a three-year deal between the WGA and AMPTP neared its end, the two groups had to negotiate a new agreement in replacement. As the contract expired on May 1, tensions began to rise in April. Ultimately, members of the WGA voted to go on strike in the case that they did not reach a sufficient agreement with the AMPTP. Evidently, the two failed to reach a satisfactory arrangement.
However, after five months of Hollywood havoc, the Writers Guild of America has approved a new contract with producers. A nearly unanimous vote by the writers ended the strike, officially ratifying the deal.
So what does this mean going forward?
Writers are pleased with the new terms, lasting until May of 2026, which detail “major gains in payment, size of show staffs and control of artificial intelligence in scripts.” It looks like Chat GPT loses this time around—according to some, it can’t even make a picket sign.