Disney has reportedly formed a “task force” to look into its usage of artificial intelligence in upcoming projects across the company. First reported by Reuters, it’s said the Mouse formed the task force prior to this year’s Hollywood strikes as an attempt to embrace the technology in a changing landscape. According to the initial report, one Disney source says the company must take advantage of AI or “risk obsolescence.”
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The news agency says it’s heard news of the task force from three separate sources, confirmed by nearly a dozen new job openings on Disney’s company portal looking for those with experience in artificial intelligence or the more corporate-proper “machine learning” alternative. The job listings are open in virtually all of Disney’s facets from film studios to parks and advertising.
Though formed prior to the strikes, the use of artificial intelligence is something that’s currently splitting those organizations currently negotiating during the work stoppages. At one point, it was said the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) wanted to be able to digitally scan the likeness of background actors and generate them using similar technology in perpetuity.
“This ‘groundbreaking’ AI proposal that they gave us yesterday: they propose that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation,” SAG-AFTRA negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland revealed earlier this summer. “So if you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”
Neither the Screen Actors Guild or Writers Guild of America have yet to come to terms with the AMPTP. WGA officials spoke with their counterparts from the AMPTP earlier this month for the first time since the strike began in May, though talks broke down once again after a single meeting.
“The WGA Negotiating Committee began this process intent on making a fair deal, but the studios’ responses have been wholly insufficient given the existential crisis writers are facing,” the WGA said earlier this year. “The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing. From their refusal to guarantee any level of weekly employment in episodic television, to the creation of a ‘day rate’ in comedy variety, to their stonewalling on free work for screenwriters and on AI for all writers, they have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.”
