Netflix offers up to $900,000 for AI product manager while actors strike for protection

Striking Hollywood writers and actors will be delighted to learn that Netflix, one of the powers perceived to be upending the entertainment industry, is advertising for an AI product manager with a salary up to $900,000. There are a couple of reasons why TV and film creatives are kicking up a stink right now. Writers have been …

[amanfromMars 1]

Softly, Softly, Catchee Monkey and Donkeys and Charlie's just Telling IT like IT is

(Charlie Brooker really has to stop giving the rich and powerful terrible ideas)

:-) Is there any other better way to defeat them ..... for you know they cannot help themselves whenever they have nothing brilliant to offer?

[cornetman]

I think that there are a few different issues rolled into this debate, some of which I have sympathy for, some I don't.

The main two points, IIUC as they relate to AI:

1) Actors having their likeness ripped off. This is a very real threat. I think some hard industry rules maybe backed by specific legislation is required in this realm. There are all sorts of problems with passing off. Actors reputations could be destroyed by their likeness being used to represent something general viewed as reprehensible. This is clearly going to be a huge problem.

2) Actors losing work. This is inevitable. Get used to it. Like the industrialisation of cloth production, lots of jobs are going to disappear, particularly when advanced AI is behind a live action holographic figure playing out novel scenarios akin to what we saw in Star Trek holo-novels and elsewhere is sci-fi. It might even be the next big thing in Hollywood if they can figure out a way for everyone to not have to wear those God-awful goggles.

[EricB123]

I Remember...

And call it "Max Headroom"?

[CowHorseFrog]

Hollywood is already crap and boring.

Just look at the cover art, a large number all look the same... its alway dark, blues and oranges, if you jumble the art without the names any could apply to any.

[Pete 2]

I act, therefore I am ... a waiter

> the actors you never hear about, earn less than $26,000 a year

And as such, those people might identify as "actors" because that sounds sexy and artistic 'n' all. But it wont be the job they do that pays the rent, buys their food or keeps the lights on.

At best it will be a gig they called in for a few times a year. After several (dozen) try-outs which result in "we'll call you"

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: I act, therefore I am ... a waiter

WHy do these actors forget about the real workers who make movies possible ?

Frim writers, to the tradies who build the props and make everything work, or perhaps the staff who make the meals and the countless other things ?

Instead we see one group of arseholes who want everything for themselves but most got shafted because they were trying to join the greed club.

[tony trolle]

Re: I act, therefore I am ... a waiter

Like your stance against proofreaders; do you work in the "frim" industry or newspapers (remember them?).

[TheMaskedMan]

Hmmm. I can understand the actors' concerns, and even sympathize with them, but what is to stop the studios creating entirely new faces / bodies to use as extras, or even main cast?

The technology isn't there yet, but you can bet that it will be, eventually. At that point, all those pesky organic extras who are causing disruption now are going to be "resting" permanently. This may not be a good time to annoy their employers!

As for complaining about the salary, well, it all about supply and demand, isn't it? There seem to be quite a few bit part actors - enough to keep the pay low. Apparently not so many folks with the technical skills required for the job, hence high pay. If you don't like the pay that other people get, perhaps a re-evaluation of your career choices might be in order?

[heyrick]

"what is to stop the studios creating entirely new faces"

Recognition.

If you can fling a fake Tom Cruise off a building where he falls and meets-cute David Duchovny, well, look, two well known actors. Essentially for free as they're not real. Plus, look, they're making out. There's the meme and the advertising opportunities right there.

On the other hand, Joe Random falling off a building into the arms of Guy Whatever? Meh, who cares.

[NeilPost]

It’s just an evolution of animation.

Hey Duggee, The Simpsons, South Park are not real, but have recognition.

[heyrick]

True, but animation has recognition on its own terms. It's not pilfering the likeness of people that already have recognition.

If the technology exists to fake existing people as AI characters, then the technology exists to create entirely new people who can become popular in and of themselves (like Hatsune Miku). So why the need for any digital likeness when entirely new people can be devised as needed?

[katrinab]

We have had animated movies since at least the 1920s. Back then, each frame was drawn by hand on paper, things have obviously progressed a lot since then, but it isn't necessarily cheaper than hiring humans to act out on front of a camera.

[M.V. Lipvig]

Only because a live action movie requires a real person right now. We aren't far off now though. Imagine a world where James Bond looks and sounds exactly like he should, and you can watch "him" perform stunts without a stunt double, and it looks 100 percent like a real person performed the action. And, "he" does it free of charge with no residuals because you paid for the quantum computer live action animator with the first multi-billion dollar movie. M is the kindly old man who absentmindedly sketches out a new kitten cannon that Bond uses to kill Nipfinger. Or whatever else you can dream up. A jaw-droppingly beautiful Moneypenny. And not one penny to some actor who ignores safety rules and gets away with murder by shooting someone then claiming someone else was reaponsible because "I'm just a stupid actor."

Personally, this is one industry I'm looking forward to going 100 percent computer generated people.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm gonna say it...

When you consider the utter shite that passes for television now, those writers "earning" $26k are frankly overpaid.

[ecofeco]

Re: I'm gonna say it...

Writers can only produce what the studios demands.

They are not in control.

[abend0c4]

Re: I'm gonna say it...

That's not entirely true. Snakes on a Plane, for example, famously did not start life in a studio (not that it's a ringing endorsement of independent creativity). I also know people who've hawked their personal concepts around producers for years before getting films into development. At that point, though it is true that the money is in total control and what emerges will be what is believed to be most marketable.

[that one in the corner]

Re: I'm gonna say it...

>> Writers can only produce what the studios demands.

> I also know people who've hawked their personal concepts around producers for years before getting films into development

So: Writers who want a paycheck every month can only produce what the studios demands

[benderama]

35 people?

In what location would $900k pay for 35 humans and give health care to their families? Certainly not San Jose, where Netflix is homed, nor Hollywood or New York where many of the filming giants are located.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 35 people?

== In what location would $900k pay for 35 humans and give health care to their families?

Anywhere in the civilised parts of the world, those bits with a proper attitude to health care.

[EatsRootsAndLeaves]

Re: 35 people?

"You must earn at least $26,470 in Covered Earnings in your Base Earnings Period to receive Earned Eligibility for Active Plan health coverage. Note: In future years, these minimum earnings requirements may increase. If so, the number of days required for Alternative Days Eligibility will be increased proportionately."

26,470*35 - 926450, so it's a tad rough. But the 900,000 would pay for the annual earnings of those, well it should be 34 not 35, folks in acting jobs which would qualify them for health coverage under SAG-AFTRA. Regardless of where they live.

[FirstTangoInParis]

Next cheap labour market?

> …. aliens that can take other forms to hide among Earth's populace.

When conglomerates have finished plundering countries for cheap labour, clearly aliens are the next on their hit list.

[ecofeco]

A what?

Will they work with the social media staff and synergize new solutions by leveraging existing content and creating new paradigms to enhance audience experience and providing more value to stakeholders?

[Mark Exclamation]

Re: A what?

Do you work in marketing....?

[Paul Herber]

Re: A what?

Don't worry, the dross created by marketing gimboids will be the next target of AI.

[Howard Sway]

advertising for an AI product manager with a salary up to $900,000

Clearly, at that salary they're looking for someone who can tell them how to use AI to generate good scripts and acting performances. As there is currently nothing available that can actually do that, it's inevitable that the job will go to the interviewee who gives the most convincing performance, persuading them that something that isn't real actually exists.

In other words, all you low paid actors, here's a chance to get paid big time if you prepare for the role well enough.

[GidaBrasti]

Re: advertising for an AI product manager with a salary up to $900,000

I'm sure pretty soon there will be an AI agent for that too.

[Anonymous Coward]

Plenty of other areas for application

So while that kind of thing might be a moonshot, I'd be surprised if the role was focused on that. I suspect they are playing the actual priorities closer to the vest, but improving their discovery and recommendation systems is more likely a priority than chasing the dream of the impossible.

Using these tools to preprocess and summarize content is much more achievable, and they are already doing it.

That said you are probably right that the candidate that gets the job will probably be one that got their degree in hype not engineering. The whole field has been flooded with bullshit artists that are papering over their shortcomings with blather and consistently over-promise and under deliver. The primary job requirement isn't skill with machine learning, it's being able to speak fluent management.

[that one in the corner]

Alternative use for $900,000 at Netflix

Buy some bleedin' light bulbs for your sets so we can see what the blazes is going on!

That would increase viewership in certain Corners' worlds.

[that one in the corner]

Re: Alternative use for $900,000 at Netflix

D'oh!

Just realised: that lighting is so that we won't be able to tell when they stop using human actors!

All they need do is keep recycling the same motion captures overlaid with vague shadowy figures: why waste extra money on GPU texture cycles.

They've just been preparing the viewers the whole time. Well, that puts paid to all the stories about Executive Creatives [1] only looking to the short term.

[1] wanted to put "Hollywood" there but not honestly sure if Netflix counts as Hollywood; advice, anyone?

[CowHorseFrog]

Not quite sure why americans invest so much in managers and so little in actual talent ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Best guess: they loaded the paper in portrait and don't know how to rotate the print for landscape.

Therefore all their org charts have to have lots of layers in order to fit everyone onto the page and layers means managers, middle-managers, medium-level-managers, under-managers, over-managers, uber-managers and lots of people who indulge in vice, according to their title.

This is the most sensible reason I know, none of the other explanations are anywhere near as rational.

[JBowler]

Even extras?

>Even extras could be written out of existence this way.

First the extras.

I remember this story from one of the people who certainly would qualify for that job based on the ad parts you quote.

She was working for a well known (in the UK) fish finger manufacturer. She learnt that in the past they had a problem. They couldn't filet fish. After many tribulations they found some guy who worked on the fishing fleets coming in from the North Sea and could filet fish. They watched him, they learned, they adapted their machines to make fish fingers faster.

Personally I believe the first people to go will be doctors. Certainly mine only does zoom these days.

Excellent article, one of El Reg's best.