The Screenwriter’s Association (SWA) Endorses Global Initiative for Ethical AI Use in Scriptwriting

Mumbai, 16th April 2024: The Screenwriter’s Association (SWA), a collective voice for the rights and welfare of screenwriters in India, has expressed its support for the collaborative efforts of the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE) and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG). The organizations recently came out with a joint resolution outlining a set of guidelines to establish an ethical framework for the use of AI in scriptwriting.

The resolution, consisting of five key principles, affirms the role of writers as the sole creators of literary material and advocates for mechanisms to ensure transparency, informed consent, and fair compensation in the use of writers' intellectual property. The FSE brings together 32 screenwriters’ organizations from 26 European countries and the IAWG has 14 members from 12 countries.

These organizations are committed to advocating for fair contracts and ensuring the protection and fair compensation of writers. SWA currently has over 65,000 members operating across India including prominent writers-filmmakers like Raj Shekhar, Anjum Rajabali, Zama Habib, Saket Chaudhary, Preeti Mamgain, Hitesh Kewalya, Sriram Raghavan, Sujoy Ghosh, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, among many others.

Speaking about this, Zama Habib, General Secretary, SWA, said, "SWA stands firmly with IAWG and  FSE in championing ethical standards for AI integration in scriptwriting. Only human creativity can craft genuine screenwriting works. We advocate for transparency, consent, and fair remuneration to uphold writers' rights in the ever-evolving landscape of storytelling.”

Adding further, Carolin Otto, German Screenwriter, and FSE President, said, “While we applaud the work of the EU to enact the AI Act, there are unresolved issues with respect to the unauthorized use of our intellectual property for training large language models and uncertainty regarding authorship and copyright of machine-generated script material. We intend to voice our concerns in both national and global policy arenas, as well as develop standard language film and television writers can demand in their contracts.”

Irish Screenwriter and IAWG Chair, Jennifer Davidson, said, “The members of the IAWG seek to build on the hard-won protections our sister Guilds in America, the WGAE and the WGAW, were able to achieve during their strike: namely that it should be a tool to enhance our writing process, not diminish the value of our work or replace us. Last year, we campaigned at UNESCO and this year we will take our position to WIPO, support each other during collective bargaining, and invite representatives of the tech community to the 6th World Conference of Screenwriters in Galway.”

A joint resolution passed by IAWG and FSE states that their member guilds will:

1. Affirm that only writers create literary material and that large language models (LLMs) or any other present or future forms of artificial intelligence (AI), cannot be used in place of writers;
2. Work to create mechanisms for obligatory transparency and accountability and to ensure writers are informed if AI-generated material is used to write, rewrite, polish, or perform any additional writing services
   
3. Advocate for robust licensing mechanisms that require explicit and informed consent for the use of writers’ intellectual property in AI training data to ensure only intellectual property that has been licensed for such use be included in the datasets of commercialized LLMs or any other present or future forms of AI
   
4. Ensure that only human beings are entitled to authors rights and recognized under copyright law in the context of machine-generated material
   
5. Advocate for fair remuneration for the use of writers’ intellectual property in LLMs or any other present or future forms of AI.