With the position that artificial intelligence (AI) cannot generate authentically Canadian content, the Writers Guild of Canada put AI to the test to see what ‘improvements’ AI could make to some of Canada’s most iconic film and television lines.
Given the simple instructions to ‘improve this line,’ or ‘word this line differently to have the same meaning but be more entertaining,’ ChatGPT was given a host of iconic Canadian lines from film and tv, with the following (bad) results:
| Source | CANADIAN Written Line | AI 'Improvement' |
| Degrassi High/The Zit Remedy | “Everybody wants something they’ll never give up. Everybody wants something, that’ll take your monay and never give up!” | “Everybody craves something they’ll never let go of. Everybody wants something, that’ll take your money and never relent!” |
| Schitt’s Creek | “David, stop acting like a disgruntled pelican!” | “David, cut it out with the pelican tantrums!” |
| Kids in The Hall | “I’m crushing your head.” | “Prepare for a head crunch.” |
| Letterkenny | “Pitter patter, let’s get at ‘er!” | “Quick and slick, let’s get to work.” |
| Arthur | “Hold me back! Somebody hold me back or I’ll write a poem right now!” | “Restrain me! Someone, stop me or I’ll craft a poem this very second!” |
| Kim’s Convenience | “Okay, see you!” | “Alright, talk to you soon.” |
| Trailer Park Boys | “Worst case Ontario.” | “At worst, we’re looking at an Ontario situation.” |
| The Red Green Show | “If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.” | “If you’re not a sight for sore eyes, be a fix for broken things.” |
| Bon Cop, Bad Cop | “We’re a bilingual country. We should be able to catch a bilingual killer.” | “Being bilingual, we ought to be able to catch a bilingual killer with ease.” |
| The Friendly Giant | “Look up, waaaaay up!” | “Tilt your chin up, way, way up!” |
| Fubar | “Turn up the good, turn down the suck.” | “Crank up the good vibes and dial down the negativity.” |
| Strange Brew | “Take off, you hoser.” | “Get lost, you goof.” |
| Today’s Special | “Hocus pocus alimagocus!” | “Poof! Magic in the air!” |
“We’re having a little fun at AI’s expense here, but no one wants to change an iconic line like “I’m crushing your head” or lose the small-town authenticity of “let’s get at ‘er’," said Bruce Smith, President of the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC). “The AI ‘improvement’ results are funny, but the WGC believes that AI poses a serious threat to screenwriters and Canadian culture.”
The WGC asked prominent member Andrew Phung (Kim’s Convenience/Run the Burbs) to read the CHAT GPT lines. HERE is a video of his interpretations.
How does AI threaten Canadian screenwriters?
- Reduction in work opportunities. AI will be used in place of human writers.
- Threat to the craft of screenwriting. Anyone using AI to generate content can call themselves a screenwriter.
- Reduction in compensation and credit. Screenwriters will be relegated to rewriting AI-generated content, resulting in reduced compensation and credit.
- Unauthorized use of copyrighted content. The work made by screenwriters will be used to train AI without their consent, credit or compensation.
“Not only does AI threaten the existence of Canadian screenwriters, but it also has the potential to erode – or worse, eradicate – the specific, unique, multicultural experience of being Canadian reflected to audiences in this country and around the world. No matter how much content is fed to it, AI can’t write from the culturally nuanced perspective of a human Canadian writer. And if the person who types a prompt into an AI chatbot happens to be Canadian, it’s not Canadian content that’s generated,” added Smith.
What is the WGC doing about it?
To address these concerns, the WGC is actively advocating on behalf of screenwriters at the bargaining table, with policy makers, funders, and industry stakeholders. The WGC has already achieved significant protections against AI in our Independent Production Agreement (IPA), such as:
- Producers must disclose when they are providing AI-generated materials for a writer to work from and contract Guild writers under the IPA.
- AI-generated content will not receive a credit or compensation, and must not erode a writer’s rights under the IPA.
- Material written by Guild members under the IPA should not to be used to train AI.
We are also lobbying to ensure that:
- Public funding for culture should be for the benefit of human creators.
- Industry awards should only go to content created by human beings.
- Only human beings are “authors” for the purposes of copyright.
- Creators must be protected from unauthorized and unpaid exploitation of their works. AI systems must be transparent on their source material.
