Disney, Netflix & More Hollywood Studios Accelerate AI Hiring Amid Strike Tensions

As Hollywood writers and actors continue to strike for fair pay and protections against artificial intelligence, the studios they're battling are wasting no time in developing that very technology. A recent report from The Hollywood Reporter has highlighted just how vast the divide between studios and strikers is, collating high-paying job listings across the entertainment industry for AI and machine learning experts.

While far from the only point of contention between the unions and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the use of AI is a central piece of both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA's grievances. Many have spoken out about the potential for studios to maliciously take ownership of actors' likenesses, allowing for digital replicas and other unauthorized work being made without compensation or permission. This has been particularly contentious in regard to background actors, who make less than $200 a day on average and fear having their likenesses absorbed for a single day's work.

Members of the Writers Guild have expressed similar concerns and demanded similar protections. But that hasn't stopped the studios from going on a hiring frenzy in the AI department. Netflix made headlines when a job listing for an AI expert advertised compensation of up to $900,000, and many other similar companies are trying to bolster their own rosters in the field. Some might read this behavior as downright despicable given that inadequate compensation has also been a huge point of contention with the unions. The studios, however, don't seem to care.

As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix's $900,000 AI product manager role is far from the only such opening right now. One job at Prime Video promises compensation of up to $300,000 for someone who wants to "define the next big thing in localizing content, enhancing content, or making it accessible using state-of-the-art Generative AI and Computer Vision tech." Since the SAG-AFTRA strike began, Disney has put up numerous AI-related job listings, including some in the company's media and Imagineering branches — fields typically driven by human creatives.

Some of these postings claim to be on the right side of AI development. For instance, one Sony opening for an "ethics" engineer in the AI department advertises "AI techniques that empower the imagination and creativity of artists, makers and creators around the world," per THR. The listing also claims, "Our aim is to advance AI so that it augments — and works in harmony with — humans to benefit society."

This is common rhetoric used in defense of AI proliferation — the idea that it's only meant as a tool to make jobs easier and empower creatives further. However, in the case of Hollywood, the creatives in question seem universally opposed to such developments. Given the untenable conditions that writers and actors are calling out, so many high-paying AI job listings could be read as a money-grubbing slap in the face to actual artists.

There are layers to the moral problems inherent in Hollywood studios hiring more AI technicians. Not only does it show a complete disregard for the unions' calls for regulation of the technology, but it feels particularly flippant given the current financial media landscape.

Many of the companies that are now begging for AI "experts" have spent the last several months laying off thousands of employees. Disney cut more than 7,000 jobs in total, and competitors like Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount have made similar moves. When it comes to AI, however — the very thing that many people working in media rightfully fear could take their jobs — these companies are hiring frantically.

Studios haven't tried to hide their disdain for strikers. "The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses," one anonymous executive told Deadline. While AI jobs go up offering hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, many writers and actors struggling to make a living in their fields — even those who find acclaim and success. Actors like "Orange is the New Black" staple Kimiko Glenn and writers like "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" scribe Cody Ziglar have spoken out about just how pitiful their residuals on hit streaming series actually are. And that's all in addition to the most basic moral issue with generative AI — the fact that it trains itself using other people's work without credit or compensation.