Many of the biggest AI models have been trained on film and TV dialogue, and writers are furious. John and Craig explore the legal, ethical and philosophical implications of this revelation, our emotional reactions to it, and offer strategies for picking the right hills to die on.

But first, we follow up on the definition of horror vs. thriller, generational narcissism, and young people’s ambition. We also answer listener questions on when to bail on a script and how to approach your first contract.

In our bonus segment for premium members, we dig into the philosophical implications of Craig believing we live in a simulation, and whether that necessarily implies a creator. Woah, man.

Links:

• Flightplan (and The Lady Vanishes)
• There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI by Alex Reisner for The Atlantic
• Vince Gilligan Statement on AI to USCO
• Lunchables
• The Serenity Prayer
• Jon Batiste hears Green Day for the First Time
• Tini’s Mac and Cheese on TikTok
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram
• John August on BlueSky, Threads, Instagram, and Mastodon
• Outro by Nick Moore (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

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You can download the episode here.