VIDEO: AI rewrites Canada’s most iconic film and television lines

Artificial intelligence was put to the test on some of Canada’s most iconic film and television lines.

The Writers Guild of Canada ran the lines through AI to see what “improvements” it could make, according to a press release from the guild.
 
Given the simple instructions to “improve this line,” or “word this line differently to have the same meaning but be more entertaining,” ChatGPT was given a host of iconic Canadian lines from film and TV.

📺 Watch @AndrewPhung, WGC member, put AI to the test.🧐 Let’s make sure we keep #WritersNotRobots working on our favourite Canadian film and TV shows.✍️🤖 https://t.co/7ap7YVsYHG

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://t.co/ysRilvGjnqhttps://t.co/xLUDYvACSs pic.twitter.com/UTQ6C2h5zn

— Writers Guild of Canada (@WGCtweet) November 25, 2024

“We’re having a little fun at AI’s expense here, but no one wants to change an iconic line like “I’m crushing your head” or lose the small-town authenticity of “let’s get at ‘er’,” said Bruce Smith, president of the Writers Guild of Canada. “The AI ‘improvement’ results are funny, but the WGC believes that AI poses a serious threat to screenwriters and Canadian culture.”

Back in 2023, Hollywood screenwriters went on strike to protect their jobs against the use of artificial intelligence.

The use of AI could reduce work opportunities and threaten the craft of screenwriting, the guild noted.

“Anyone using AI to generate content can call themselves a screenwriter.”

Screenwriters could also be relegated to rewriting AI-generated content, resulting in reduced compensation and credit.

The work made by screenwriters will be used to train AI without a writer’s consent, credit or compensation.

“Not only does AI threaten the existence of Canadian screenwriters, but it also has the potential to erode – or worse, eradicate – the specific, unique, multicultural experience of being Canadian reflected to audiences in this country and around the world,” added Smith.

“No matter how much content is fed to it, AI can’t write from the culturally nuanced perspective of a human Canadian writer. And if the person who types a prompt into an AI chatbot happens to be Canadian, it’s not Canadian content that’s generated.”

Here are the results:

Lead photo: Matheus Bertelli