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As Writers & Actors Fight For AI Protections, Artificial Intelligence Screenplay Competition Opens & Quickly Closes

Peter White
·2-min read

Screenplay competitions are one of the most popular ways for fledgling writers to break into Hollywood but one contest found itself on the wrong side of the AI argument.

Scriptapalooza, a screenplay competition company, launched, and then quickly closed its Artificial Intelligence Screenplay Competition after a furor from writers.

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It comes as the writers are currently on strike with AI protections as one of their key demands to the studios. It also comes as SAG-AFTRA is in the middle of extended negotiations with the AMPTP, again with AI as one of the key discussion points.

The company had sent out its Artificial Intelligence Screenplay Competition plans to writers.

“The AI screenplay competition stands apart by showcasing the innovative potential of artificial intelligence, merging human creativity with machine intelligence,” it noted. “Embrace the future of storytelling in the AI Screenplay Competition. Witness how AI revolutionizes the industry as it explores innovative narratives and pushes creative boundaries.”

The idea was for writers to submit the first 25 pages of a script and then receive feedback generated by AI.

“All the initial judging is done Artificial Intelligence [stet]. After AI selects one winner, we will have the writer send in the entire script. The full length script will have professional coverage done on it by a human. The winner will have the opportunity to use the coverage to strengthen their script. After that, the winning script is sent to the three human producers,” it added.

However, the company quickly realized the difficulty with such an initiative and backtracked.

It apologized for the “mess” on social media.

“Unfortunately we got caught up in the frenzy of AI. For the past 25 years we have been working for writers. Bad decisions were made to run with this. We apologize. We stand with writers and the WGA,” it tweeted. “I guess we were thinking a little too outside the box. All taken down.”

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