In the Flood of AI Scripts, How Will You Stand Out?

The dull idea machine in the wrong hands means more competition quantity, not quality

Artificial Intelligence is coming for screenwriting in some form or another. I fully support my WGA kin’s fight to regulate AI in our industry, and it’s looking like we will win protections for the sake of screenwriting’s future as a whole. That said… I don’t think you can put the genie back in the bottle entirely. 

Normally my advice for any writer (and myself when I’m feeling frustrated and pigeon-holed) is to write your way out. Write more. Write better. Write differently until you have one or many things you’re proud of. Write fast.

But AI is using the data. AI can learn basic structure. AI is very good at being safe, and even better at being fast. That means that inevitably there is about to be an absolute deluge of dull scripts, story documents, and pitches developed internally by studios, (some) producers, and an absolute crush of wannabe screenwriters who decide to take the Big Shortcut. Even if the WGA wins full protection, and even if the Supreme Court decides that AI can’t be copyrighted, the prospect of a story formula machine is too enticing for some to pass up, and they will find a way to use it in an industry known for needing new and exciting ideas, but wanting safe ideas.

I’m not saying anything new when I say that AI generated stories will be formulaic, bland, stereotypical regurgitations of things we’ve already seen. What I am saying is that we will see a surge in the quantity of scripts (mostly bad) flooding the market. (We’re already seeing a flood of ebooks written by ChatGPT, adding more and more junk to slog through). That means we screenwriters need to prepare to stand out among the noise that’s about to get cranked up.

Here are some ways we can do that, which I’ve been thinking about since all of this blew up a few months ago: