The West Wing Creator Aaron Sorkin becomes candid about his thoughts on the negative consequences of artificial intelligence when making movies.
At the 2023 Adobe Summit on Wednesday, the writer, producer and TV creator explained that he believes AI technology isn’t all that helpful when it comes to writing “a screenplay for you.”
“No, not me [think AI could write The West Wing] because — this is what I assume happened,” The Newsroom creator said. “Whether — there’s about the same kind of software for writing a hit — I suppose they’ve loaded a zillion of very successful screenplays into a machine, whether they’re thrillers or westerns or romantic comedies. And then a computer can make something similar, but a computer hasn’t written those scenarios that are fed into the machine. And I think you’ll enjoy things done by people more.
The Oscar-winning writer’s comments come at a time when the market for AI technology continues to grow, but as it progresses, more debates on the issue surface.
It has recently become the focus of attention Contract negotiations with the Writers Guild of America while pushing to ban the use of AI as source material, as well as AI-written works and AI-rewritten works under its contract. The union also wants to prevent texts created by AI from being eligible for credits.
Sorkin, known for his writing on The social network, Steve Jobs And Money ball, adding that he thinks “technology can also be a co-pilot. And part of my attitude comes from having to sit in a room with people who are experts in it and know nothing… I feel let down.”