A consortium of screenwriters' organizations and unions, including the Writers Guild of America East and West, have collectively pledged to advocate for "robust licensing mechanisms" that mandate clear consent for the use of writers' material in training artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The Federation of Screenwriters in Europe and International Affiliation of Writers Guilds will officially announce on Thursday that they have jointly passed a resolution concerning the ethical use of AI. Part of this resolution includes member groups aiming to ensure, by 2024, that only licensed intellectual property is included in the datasets of commercialized AI models, such as LLMs or any other future forms of AI. Additionally, the resolution calls for efforts to prevent AI from replacing human writers, promote transparency measures to inform writers of AI usage in writing services like polishing or rewrites, advocate for authorship rights to remain exclusive to humans, and push for fair compensation for the use of writers' intellectual property in AI models, including LLMs or any other forthcoming AI technologies. These groups collectively represent approximately 67, 000 professional writers worldwide. The Federation of Screenwriters in Europe comprises 26 organizations dedicated to screenwriters from 21 European countries, including unions, guilds, and associations. The International Affiliation of Writers Guilds consists of 14 international writers' guilds as members, including the WGA East and West, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, the Writers Guild of Canada, the Screenwriters Guild of South Korea, and the Société des auteurs de radio, télévision et cinéma. To pursue their AI-related goals, the resolution calls for these organizations to engage in collective bargaining, lobbying, and the inclusion of mandatory clauses in standard contracts. IAWG Chair Jennifer Davidson, an Irish screenwriter known for her work on "Fair City, " stated that the AI protections achieved by the WGA East and West during the 2023 writers' strike will serve as a starting point for these groups. She emphasized that AI should enhance the writing process rather than diminish the value of writers' work or replace them. Carolin Otto, President of the FSE and a German screenwriter involved in "Lena Lorenz, " highlighted the unresolved issues in the European Union's AI Act, which is slated to become law later this year.

Concerns include unauthorized use of intellectual property for training large language models and ambiguity regarding authorship and copyright of machine-generated script material. Otto expressed the intention to voice these concerns in both national and global policy arenas and develop standardized language that film and television writers can demand in their contracts. Following demanding negotiations with major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms, as well as a 148-day strike in 2023, the WGA East and West achieved credit, transparency, and flexibility protections concerning AI. The contract does not prohibit the use of AI, but rather allows writers to employ it as a tool with employer approval, and studios can request but not require writers to work with AI. Both parties must disclose any use of AI. Furthermore, the unions secured acknowledgments that AI is not a writer and cannot create "literary material, " and the use of AI will not alter writers' credit or compensation.