What Role Should AI Play In Screenwriting?

If your kneejerk reaction to that title is “none,” you’re not alone. Whether out of fear of being replaced, having their work devalued, or just a general distaste for the technology, many writers are vocally against the use of AI in any creative capacity.

Many, but not all.

In my capacity as a reader for the Black List, I’ve read a few hundred scripts and thought I had seen just about every way in which a script could go wrong, until very recently. There have been two scripts I’ve read this year which have had a novel issue: they were created, at least in part, using AI tools. 

Now I know that accusing someone of using AI is a contentious practice. It's difficult to prove, which runs the risk of it becoming a modern-day McCarthyism. In my case, I have some under-the-hood experience with AI models for companies like Google and Meta, so I’m quite familiar with the writing styles and semantic choices that these models make. They have habits and preferences which become easy to spot, like how you might recognize your favorite writer just by reading a page of their work.

On the surface, the two AI-assisted scripts that I read were capable enough. They had good formatting, a coherent plot, and reasonably believable dialogue, yet they felt extremely hollow. The pages were technically sound, but they didn’t have a voice. 

A writer’s voice comes from their unique interpretation of the world. AI interprets everything the same. It might seem like an all-seeing eye of endless information, but it has a blind spot for things like nuance, subtlety, and tone. A skilled writer knows exactly which words to choose and in exactly what order to make your eyes fly down the page or evoke an emotional response. AI chooses words based on a complex web of instructions and optimizations, with little to no understanding of how those words combine to affect the mood of a piece of writing or affect a reader’s feelings. AI might be a genuine threat for academic papers or bottom of the barrel corporate copy, but I’m personally not that worried about its abilities as a creative writer. Even as it continues to improve exponentially, it will likely always lack the tools to do anything but deliver a lifeless facsimile of compelling writing. A parrot might be able to mimic your voice with perfect fidelity, but it can’t truly speak for itself. 

However, I do believe that AI can be helpful. As I’ve written before, models like ChatGPT are very handy in the brainstorming phase of a project. Brainstorming is creative, but it’s also analytical. It requires a certain degree of planning and executive function that AI excels at. 

How should I structure this story? 

Where do I need to place this plot point? 

Does this scene work with its current ending?

These are all questions that AI can answer well. I just think that, once the brainstorming ends, so too should a writer’s use of AI. 

We’re still in the early days of AI, and nobody truly knows where it’s headed. The bubble could pop without a true breakthrough, or humanity could achieve sentient AGI which could lead to myriad positive or negative outcomes. My expertise is in writing, so I’ll restrict my comments to that domain by leaving you readers with a question: 

If you enjoy creative writing, why outsource it to AI? Outsourcing boring things like drafting emails or summarizing a work meeting makes sense, but most people generally don’t engage in creative writing unless they enjoy it. Maybe it’s just me, but letting AI take over tasks which we actually enjoy seems like an express train to depression city. 

Everyone will draw their own line in the sand when it comes to using AI.  I’m going to try not to judge other creatives if their position differs from my own. These are troubling times, and arguing over whether or not to use a tool that a bunch of billionaires cooked up seems like a pretty stupid use of our energy, if you ask me. I’d much rather put that energy into a story.