Among the many reasons why Hollywood actors have joined screenwriters in a historic industry-stopping strike are calls for better pay, plus greater protections against the rise of artificial intelligence in developing scripts or using artist’s likenesses in movie and TV productions. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Netflix
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is catching some heat for joining the likes of entertainment giants like Disney
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Amazon
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Apple
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and Sony
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in posting several AI-related positions paying six-figure salaries, even as the Writers Guild of America strike enters its fourth month.
Netflix currently has at least five open positions with “AI” or “machine learning” in the job title posted on LinkedIn within the last month. One, described as “Product Manager, Machine Learning Platform,” would pay between $300,000 to $900,000 a year. In the product manager listing, Netflix writes that AI is “powering innovation in all areas,” and it helps the streaming giant “buy and create great content.” Rob Delaney, who recently starred in a “Black Mirror” episode (“Joan is Awful”) on Netflix that featured a studio manipulating actors’ digital likenesses against their will, suggested that Netflix’s AI job salaries could be used to better compensate writers and actors.
“‘$900k/yr per soldier in their godless AI army, when that amount of earnings could qualify 35 actors and their families for SAG-AFTRA health insurance, is just ghoulish.’ ”
— Actor Rob Delaney
“So $900k/yr per soldier in their godless AI army, when that amount of earnings could qualify 35 actors and their families for SAG-AFTRA health insurance, is just ghoulish,” Delaney told The Intercept. “Having been poor and rich in this business, I can assure you there’s enough money to go around; it’s just about priorities.” Roughly 87% of SAG-AFTRA members make less than $26,000 a year from their acting jobs, according to members, making them ineligible for health coverage through the union. Elizabeth Benjamin, a writer on Netflix shows including “Dead to Me” and “13 Reasons Why,” said the Netflix job posting “turns my stomach” in a post on X.com, formerly known as Twitter.
“Star Trek: Picard” and “The Equalizer” writer Christopher Derrick called the job post …
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