It was inevitable that AI would poke its nose in before the week drew to a close, and here we are (though we also have a delightfully analog story as a counterbalance). You will recall that the Grammys recently announced they would permit music that AI had played a part in creating to be eligible for their awards. This week, the Oscars followed suit, announcing that AI-generated films will be eligible for top honors.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
The Motion Picture Academy of America, which runs the awards, has said that films using AI tools, including generative AI, will be eligible for top awards.
You will, of course, remember that precisely this—the involvement of AI in the film industry’s creative side, especially the acting and writing side—was at the heart of the dispute that ground the industry to a halt for a while in 2023. As a result of that, agreements were reached around, for example, the composition of writers’ rooms. But the new statement opens the door for parties not privy to those agreements.
AI Eligibility Raises Questions for Writers
We wait for big announcements on the subject in the writing world. But it doesn’t take a ChatGPT hallucination to imagine a day when a major prize announces that AI work would be eligible for an award that a self-published writer is not.
Literary Events Make a Comeback
I promised an analog balance, and it comes in the form of a story about the rise of in-person literary events.
The piece itself at least pays us the courtesy of acknowledging that such events aren’t new. That said, as someone who ran regular shows that featured fully amped bands and drum ’n’ bass sets alongside novels and poetry a decade and a half ago, I raised an eyebrow at some of the pronouncements on music and literature blending.
That said, it is good to see that the live gig is back on the rise in the literary world. Many of the stories I’ve featured in the past year or so have indicated that the kind of direct engagement and physical product/experience side of the writer–fan relationship is thriving and offering us great opportunities. Long may it continue.
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