HOLLYWOOD CREATIVES TRAIN AI TO REPLICATE THEIR WORK

Developing story: AI-labor contracts, union responses, studio policies and employment data may change as the technology spreads.

Hollywood creatives are taking temporary work training artificial-intelligence systems to perform tasks drawn from screenwriting, production and directing, according to a Guardian report published Saturday. The trend shows how the entertainment industry’s jobs slump is pushing workers to help build tools that could eventually compete with them.

The Guardian reported that experienced and award-winning writers, directors and producers are being paid from $12 to $200 an hour to teach AI models tasks such as writing screenplays, planning shoots, creating pitch decks and transcribing complex footage. The work is often arranged through AI training companies that contract with major model developers.

The story is not simply about technology adoption. It is about labor pressure. Film and television employment has been weakened by the pandemic, the writers’ strike, streaming-company retrenchment and now AI adoption. Workers who cannot find conventional production jobs may accept training work because it provides income, even if they worry it undermines their future market.

The tasks described in the Guardian report are highly specific. One screenwriter trained AI to produce a two-day filming schedule, identify permits and hazards, account for daylight and staffing, and handle child-protection needs. Those are not abstract creative prompts; they are practical production-management skills learned through experience.

The ethical tension is obvious. Some workers see the training as helping machines learn to replace people. Others see it as inevitable and argue that refusing to participate will not stop the technology. That split mirrors the wider economy, where workers in law, health, finance and education are also being paid to teach AI systems professional judgment.

The entertainment industry is especially sensitive because creative labor depends on credit, authorship, originality and residual value. If AI systems can generate scripts, schedules, pitch materials or rough edits, studios may use them to reduce costs, shorten development cycles or weaken bargaining power for human workers.

What is confirmed is that creatives are taking paid AI-training work and that the practice is spreading during an industry employment slump. What remains unresolved is whether this becomes a temporary support job for struggling professionals or a pipeline through which AI firms absorb human expertise and reduce future creative employment.

Fact-check date: August 22, 2026. Article type: Feature. Sources: The Guardian; FilmLA Research; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Developing note: AI-labor contracts, union responses, studio policies and employment data may change as the technology spreads.