As the Hollywood strike drags on, Brian Cox talks about how he doesn’t like the idea that AI could start writing shows.
After weeks of failed talks, everyone in the US union Sag-Aftra decided unanimously to quit.
Writers in the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike months ago, and now Sag members have done the same.
Yesterday, the cast of Oppenheimer left the UK opening early out of unity. Christopher Nolan said that they were “off to write their picket signs.”
Deadline says that members will officially join picket lines at all the big studios. This is the first time that the WGA and Sag have both gone on strike at the same time since 1960.
Succession actor Brian, who is 77 years old, thinks that things could get “unpleasant” and that material made by AI would be “crap.”
‘It’s a situation that could really get unpleasant and it could go on for quite some time,’ he told Sky News.
Brian also talked about a recent attempt to use AI and warned that it’s not a good way to replace real writers if the strikes keep going.
‘There was a whole lot of AI suggesting what I would do which was absolute nonsense. It was a kind of jokey thing anyway, but I found it really extraordinary that they made up this scenario that doesn’t exist and has nothing to do with who I am,’ he recalled.
This happened right before Brian went on the Channel 4 show The Last Leg, where they tried to make an AI scene from the movie Succession for the last part of yesterday’s show.
In the random scene, Adam Hills was Kendall Roy, Rosie Jones was Shiv Roy, and Alex Brooker was a stranger who crashed the meeting.
A confused Brian told Alex to “Oh f**k off,” but we’re not sure if that part was written by AI.
Adam, 53, also didn’t like the conversation. He called it “rubbish” and said it showed the need for real writers.
Brian also warned about AI: ‘It’s the bogeyman,’ before adding ‘especially when you’re going on a strike, especially when you’re striking certain issues’.
‘The streaming services could easily go to create AI, which would be nonsense and there would never be an original voice.
‘You would never have an original Jesse Armstrong [Succession creator] or the original guy who created the White Lotus [Mike White]. It just wouldn’t exist.
‘There would be some monkey copy of the show, and that is unacceptable,’ he concluded.
