The core issue behind the Hollywood actor/writer strike … how AI will transform our world for better and worse … a $3 Trillion AI Panic event tonight with Eric Fry … 1,000% return potential
Get ready to watch reruns of The Office for the 47th time because your favorite TV show isn’t coming back anytime soon.
As I’m sure you’ve heard, actors and writers have been on strike for months. This has shut down just about all-things-Hollywood, and there’s no end in sight.
At first glance, the strike centers on the issue you’d expect – money (so far, estimates are that the strike is having a $3 billion impact on the California economy). But there’s something else driving the money disagreement, and how this matter resolves will direct the flow of trillions of dollars in Hollywood in the coming years.
More broadly, this disagreement is a preview of things to come for our wider economy. We’re going to see this conflict play out in various ways in numerous sectors this decade. And again, trillions of dollars will be at stake.
So, what’s the core issue?
The role of Artificial intelligence (AI).
The real story beneath the Hollywood headlines is fear about AI destroying the creative community
The chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild) calls AI an “existential crisis” for actors. And he’s not wrong.
Why pay an actor hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars when an AI computer program can create a digital actor for practically zero cost?
Even if the studio heads decide against replacing familiar actors altogether, what’s to stop them from simply licensing an actor’s image and voice for pennies on the dollar?
Here’s SAG’s biting characterization of the studios’ position:
We want to be able to scan a background performer’s image, pay them for a half a day’s labor, and then use an individual’s likeness for any purpose forever without their consent.
We also want to be able to make changes to principal performers’ dialogue, and even create new scenes, without informed consent.
And we want to be able to use someone’s images, likenesses, and performances to train new generative AI systems without consent or compensation.
Now, you might be wondering – “okay, I see how AI can be problematic for actors, but script writers? That job can’t be replaced.”
Well, as Vince Vaughn declared in Wedding Crashers: “Erroneous!”
While AI hasn’t advanced enough where it can completely replace a television writer, it’s close. And it’s certainly developed enough to greatly reduce the role a human writer plays in the process.
Here’s how one TV writer describes the danger:
The fear for us as writers is not that we’re going to be replaced. It’s that the companies are going to say: ‘Hey, we can have ChatGPT write this awesome script. Now could you just punch it up with original jokes, talk to the line producer to make sure it’s in budget, talk to the actor to make sure they like the character, talk to the director to make sure it matches their vision, go to the set and do rewrites? Except we’re not going to pay you as a writer because you didn’t write it — ChatGPT wrote it.’
The Hollywood Reporter recently ran a story in which the author asked ChatGPT to write an episode of the iconic NBC comedy, 30 Rock.
It took ChatGPT all of 15 seconds to complete the task. As to its quality, the author turned the script over to a professional TV critic. While the review wasn’t glowing, the takeaway was “the idea is a fully respectable C-.”
This just echoes the fear we covered – AI writes a script, but then the humans come in to punch-up the jokes (or dramatic beats, whatever the genre).
Plus, this “C-” grade reflects AI’s writing quality now. As AI improves, the quality will too.
The age of AI has arrived, and we’re getting an early preview of how it will make our lives vastly better…and worse
Our macro expert Eric Fry has been researching AI’s multi-spectrum impact on our world for months. His findings reveal a technology that’s perhaps even more amazing – and terrifying – than most Americans realize.
From Eric:
AI will produce both massive opportunity… and massive disruption…
It is a mystery of epic proportions. Its far-reaching power and potential are both exhilarating and frightening. Or as the technology writer Kevin Roose put it recently, the conversation about AI operates “between the binary poles of euphoria and terror.”
Because AI can do what humans cannot, it possesses the power to improve the plight of humanity. But since AI can also do what many of us humans can do, it possesses the power to harm our lives by putting us out of a job.
And that’s not all.
AI also possesses the power to replace our creativity. It can produce the kind of art we might like to produce… or write the kind of song lyrics we might like to write… or create the kinds of novels or screenplays we might like to create.
In other words, AI has the potential to steal humanity from humans… and never give it back.
That’s terrifying.
But as terrifying as AI can be, its euphoric potential is no less real.
Theoretically, AI could produce modern miracles, like inventing the cures for cancer that have eluded scientists for decades.
With you and I having no ability to change AI’s coming impact on our world, all we can do is better understand that impact. And more relevant to our focus here in the Digest, understand how to put AI on our side to create investment wealth.
But there’s an issue with that too…
Are AI’s “easy gains” already behind us?
As we’ve covered here in the Digest, Eric was quick to put his Speculator subscribers into AI trades earlier this year. That enabled them to walk away with a 300% gain in their Alphabet trade, plus a separate 300% return from their Amazon trade.
But Eric’s subscribers entered those trades back in February. The market here in mid-August is vastly different.
Worse, even though investors have flooded into anything with the faintest whiff of “AI,” that doesn’t mean they’re making wise investments.
Back to Eric:
Finding cutting-edge AI plays that can become market-leading AI stocks is not easy.
It is not the proverbial “shooting fish in a barrel” process; it is more like grabbing cobras from a basket.
Many of the “pure-play” AI companies are producing sizeable losses and offer a lot more hope than substance.
Secondly, the AI initiatives at many established companies are so early in their development that they will not boost overall profit growth any time soon.
But let’s now throw in an additional wrinkle…
As we covered in yesterday’s Digest, Eric believes we’re on the verge of an “AI panic” with a very specific arrival date
From Eric:
…We’re on the verge of a massive AI panic that’s going to blindside Americans just days from now…
I can confirm at least 37 Wall Street banks that oversee a combined $12 trillion have quietly been preparing…
What’s building right now in the artificial intelligence (AI) space is pointing toward a $3-trillion panic that will erupt on Aug. 23.
Tonight at 8 PM ET, Eric is hosting an event that puts this panic and August 23 directly in the spotlight. You’ll learn what exactly is going on, and why this date is circled in red on Eric’s calendar.
But Eric will also explain why it also represents an enormous investment opportunity. He says there’s “1,000% profit potential” at play.
On that note, I’ll add that Eric has identified 41 different investments over his career that have gained 1,000% or more. So, this quadruple-digit return potential isn’t just wishful thinking.
You can join Eric for The Coming $3 Trillion AI Panic event tonight at 8 PM ET by clicking here.
Stepping back, keep your eyes on how the Hollywood strike and AI-centered negotiations plays out. And looking forward, expect more similar conflicts as AI reshapes our global economy this decade.
But also recognize the flip side of the coin – enormous wealth creation if you’re on the right side of AI.
Here’s Eric to take us out:
I believe what’s brewing right now in the AI space could help you achieve life-changing gains…
And I’ll be your guide through it.
So, to prepare, go ahead and sign up for The Coming $3 Trillion AI Panic event, which goes live tonight at 8:00 p.m.
You don’t want to miss it.
Have a good evening,
Jeff Remsburg
