Hollywood writers and directors are training AI to replace them, and getting paid to do it

Key points

• Hollywood writers, directors and producers are earning $12 to $200 an hour teaching AI systems how to do their jobs.
• The work involves training large language models, the technology behind chatbots like ChatGPT, to write screenplays and plan film shoots.
• A prolonged jobs slump in the entertainment industry is pushing experienced, award-winning creatives toward this gig work.
• One person described the experience as being "handed a shovel and asked to dig the grave of my profession".

There is a particular kind of desperation involved in teaching someone to take your job. Now imagine the someone is software.

That is the situation facing a growing number of Hollywood professionals, as first reported by The Guardian. Experienced writers, directors and producers are taking on gig work to train AI models, meaning the AI systems that learn from examples to produce text, scripts, shooting schedules and more, to replicate skills it took them years to build.

What does this work actually look like?

It varies, but the tasks are surprisingly intimate. A screenwriter might be asked to craft sample dialogue, explain story structure, or walk an AI through the logic of a three-act plot. A line producer might map out a shooting schedule step by step, narrating their decisions as they go, so the AI can learn the pattern.

Pay ranges from $12 to $200 an hour depending on experience and the platform hiring. That spread is wide. At the low end, it is not much better than retail. At the high end, it rivals a decent television staff-writing gig, though without the residuals, the credits, or the job security.

The people doing this work are not beginners. Some are award-winners with long industry credits. The fact that they are turning to AI training at all tells you something about the state of Hollywood right now.

Why are so many entertainment workers doing this?

Simply put, the usual work has dried up. A jobs slump, driven by a mix of post-strike caution from studios and broader cost-cutting, has left many creatives scrambling for income. AI training gigs have appeared in the gap, often advertised on freelance platforms with few questions asked about who applies.

The uncomfortable irony is hard to miss. Every hour a writer spends teaching an AI to draft a scene is, at least theoretically, one more hour of future screenplay work that a human may not be hired for.

"Handed a shovel and asked to dig the grave of my profession" is how one creative described it to The Guardian. It is a bleak image, but it captures the bind precisely: the bills are real, the moral discomfort is real, and neither cancels the other out.

What should workers and audiences make of this?

For anyone in a creative field, this story is worth watching. The pattern of using expert human knowledge to train AI systems that later compete with those same experts has appeared in writing, illustration, music and now, clearly, film and television production.

If you work in a creative industry, it is worth reading the contract carefully before taking AI training gigs. Some agreements sign away rights to your contributed examples permanently, with no ongoing payment if the AI goes on to generate commercial work from what you taught it.

For audiences, the practical effect may take time to show up on screen. But the economic pressure on the people who make the shows you watch is already very visible.

Common questions

Does training an AI with your work mean you lose rights to your own ideas?

Generally, yes, under most current contracts. When you submit examples to train an AI model, the platform typically owns those examples and everything the model learns from them. No ongoing royalty applies.

Can writers refuse this kind of work without losing out?

There is no obligation to take it. But with traditional commissions down, many writers feel the financial pressure leaves them little real choice, which is precisely the tension the story highlights.