WGA AI Deal and Its Implications for PR Pros

The Writer’s Guild of America strike has come to an end with the approval of a deal effective September 25, 2023 through May 1, 2026. The writers secured significant gains in one of the major areas of concern, use of AI in their work. In this episode we talk about the implications of this deal for creatives and PR pros.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:03):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters, and my ever wonderful co-host Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen, how are you doing today?

Karen Swim, APR (00:19):

Hey, Michelle. I'm doing great. How are you?

Michelle Kane (00:22):

Good. Rolling along. Rolling along. It's all we can do these days.

Karen Swim, APR (00:27):

It's rolling pretty quickly. I cannot believe, even though we have been so focused on calendars and all of the things, I swear it feels like we weren't from July to here we are end of September in a day. That's what it feels like.

Michelle Kane (00:44):

Yes, yes. It feels like as I near the close of every month, I say, what a ride.

Karen Swim, APR (00:51):

Yeah.

Michelle Kane (00:53):

So yes, definitely. We are in interesting times as ever. It just seems like the items of interest are the things that change, which leads us to our topic today when this podcast has hit, I believe in fact, well, I believe they have voted, but the WGA, the writer’s strike is over after, gosh, what was it, over 140 days. It was since May of this year they have been on strike.

Karen Swim, APR (01:28):

Yeah, it was 146 days. Very long strike.

Michelle Kane (01:33):

Yes. But in their holding on, they reached what you could call historic gains regarding the use of AI in writing, which is something we've touched on a lot here and we enjoy the many good things about using AI. But as this writer strike has definitely brought to light, there are of course some concerns about how is this going to affect how they do their work, how they are fairly compensated for their work. So we’re going to dive in a little bit about that today and just AI and tech in general. So let's do it. So the big takeaway that the writers gained was that they can choose to use AI when performing writing services with consent from their production partners, but they can't be forced to do so, which I thought was a pretty big gain. It's not like they can just say “Here, just AI this script for the next sitcom.”

Karen Swim, APR (02:39):

Yeah, I think it's historic in that we are in this time where automation technology is really taking front and center in many industries. Surprisingly, technology is also a big negotiation point in the UAW strike, which living here in Michigan that looms very large and is very much front page news. And as with, I think, back to other times when there were big technological leaps like the internet, when that became accessible and we started to be able to read news and gain information on the internet. When you have these big shifts in the way that you do work, unfortunately laws rights are not keeping pace with the speed of innovation. And so there's always this tension point between moving from the past and moving toward the future. What I think is really interesting about this is that we're learning and the writers’ strike. They're not saying that AI is terrible, don't use it, don't ever use it.

(03:58):

Let's go backwards. They're embracing the future and grappling with, okay, yes, we want to use this tool. We think that it has some efficiencies, it has some greatness, but they're fighting to keep the humanity and their talent and their skillset. And as sophisticated as AI is becoming right before our very eyes, I do not think that we should ever be so lax to believe that a technological device, no matter how well trained it is, can replace the creativity of the human mind, period. Whether that's working visually, strategic planning. I mean, there are things that AI can and cannot do. And so I think that this strike the spillover to every industry has really put workers' rights front and center, but also front and center, that we need to value what people really bring to the table.

Michelle Kane (05:04):

That is so, so true. I mean, not that we want to think back to the pandemic, but what got us through it was the art that these creators created to at a time when we could not be together as we were used to being, we at least got to still think and have emotions thanks to binging Netflix for weeks on it. So I am very glad that they got this deal because not that I have any say, but I think it is a good deal because it's like you say, AI is not the devil. It can be a great tool and as we've been saying all along, rather than just closing off to it and thinking, Ugh, this tech is going to take my job, it's going to be terrible. We need to embrace it because those of us who do it learn how to use it well, learn how to incorporate it into our everyday are going to be the ones that can still see a living and success and don't be afraid of it. It's certainly not perfect. And like you say, anything, regulations and laws lagging far behind. I mean, my goodness, we still, social media is still this ever evolving thing that our Congress and the US is still talking about. Maybe we should regulate this. I'm like you think maybe a little bit.

Karen Swim, APR (06:39):

I mean, I completely agree. There have been some disturbing ethical things that have come up. So for PR practitioners, I think it's really important. And here's the alarm that I absolutely will sound, and I may say this so much that you all will get sick of hearing that, but the alarm that I will sound is not to be afraid to use ai, not to be afraid to incorporate it into your work. I would say the alarm is really digging deep and being able to clearly articulate and demonstrate what your value is to clients. Because let's all be honest about this in the short term, AI is going to shift some budgets. It just will. This is what happens when innovation comes into play. Have already heard anecdotes from people where their budgets have either been cut or they have been eliminated because clients believe that AI could be a replacement.

(07:41):

And with the shifting media landscape and the shifting social media landscape as well, there are actually a lot of threats that I don't think that we can ignore. So if you're in the PR camp of everything's fine, everything's fine, we'll all be fine. Don't worry about it. All of the stuff has happened before true, but we should not be asleep on this one. We really shouldn't. We have to really dig down, really spend some time saying, okay, what is it that I really offer clients? We know this, but I feel like we really do struggle to both articulate it and demonstrate it. That means coming up with custom measurement dashboards, being able to put numbers and metrics to what you do and showing it to clients and making sure that it's the things that matter most to them. Putting together custom dashboards is not that hard. We've talked about this in the past for so many years at Solo PR Pro. We've had example custom dashboards. There's lots of examples out there. If you want us to do some type of a workshop on this, we're happy to bring in other experts and to do that. But I think that we should be taking this seriously and understanding that what our understanding and our perspective may not necessarily mirror those that are hiring us,

Michelle Kane (09:09):

Right? Especially if they are not of the creative mind or they're not communicators. So even though it's a punch in the gut to us perhaps, or wounds our ego, we've also been through this before with the rise of creative tools of well, everyone can design and everyone can write, and we can all do social. Yeah, maybe they can get by with it. Maybe they can get by with badly written copy that doesn't really communicate, but one day they will write something that could be damaging to them.

Karen Swim, APR (09:49):

I love that example that you brought up about designers because let's be honest, how many of us embrace Canva, like our life depended on it and stopped paying designers to do social media graphics or to do simple designs because we had a tool. And so I think that it would be irresponsible of us to rest on our laurels and say, but we're different. We're protected. That's not necessarily true. And so again, I do think that we're in this weird part right here between old and new and shifting over where it's going to be more important than ever that we become better about communicating what we do. And if you think that you're doing this, I would challenge you to think a little more deeply because I spend a lot of time in PR forums and groups, and I see what people are saying, and I see the questions that they're asking, and I hear the client struggles that people are having, and we're not that good at it.

(10:55):

We really are not. And please know that as I encourage you all to do that, that I am doing the same exact thing, doing that deep work and really going levels deeper and saying, okay, am I doing the best job of really articulating what I do? And I'm also rethinking what I actually sell to clients. There are some things that maybe are going to go away for me, and that's okay, but I think that we all should be doing that work right now. And right now our clients are budgeting, so you want to think about this quickly and make sure that you're ready for the next year because this is real. And unfortunately, unlike the writers and the actors and the UAW where technology is also factored into their negotiations, we don't have a union. It's just you. Our union is, hey, so we'll support one another, but we don't have that collective bargaining power. So we've got to get it together for ourselves and be ready to advocate for ourselves.

Michelle Kane (12:06):

Right? And also, I think it comes back a lot to checking in with your clients and saying, “Hey, here's what we've been doing so far this year. How's that tracking with you? Have your needs changed?” And that may help you get an inkling of where they are and what they're thinking without, if you're not comfortable with calling it right out, which might not be a comfortable conversation, but just checking in and saying, “What are your goals? Have your corporate goals shifted?” Because a lot of times, hey, some companies, depending on their size, they don't even have kind of like a solo shop. You don't often have the opportunity to even evaluate that you're just keeping going, but others are, and it depends to what degree they are paying attention to what's going on, but I assure you they are and how to properly incorporate it into what they're doing to make sure that you can still be an asset for them. Because I know this, we all can still be assets. It's just making sure they realize that

Karen Swim, APR (13:07):

For sure. And thank you so much for calling that point out because I do want our communicators to walk away knowing that we truly are valuable and that we do have a valuable skillset, but we have to take the personal out of it when we're talking about clients and what they think and what they see. Because we all know that there are so many things that we do that clients do not even understand why that's valuable. All of the moving parts that we manage, the things that we prevent from going wrong, they don't always get that or don't appreciate how that takes skill to do, and they never will because no one's ever going to fully understand anyone else's job unless they've done it. We can kind of understand it in a way, but all of the nuances are impossible to know. The other thing that I think the Rider Strike brought out, which is a good point for us to all consider, is not only protecting our jobs, but having the conversations about how you're using ai.

(14:17):

I don't think that you should shy away from AI conversations with your clients, ask them how they're incorporating it, and also you want to think about protecting your work. Is that important to you? So if you write a blog post for a client, are you okay with that blog post then being repurposed by ai? This was something that came up in the rider strike. So if you're writing materials, do you want those materials to be used indefinitely without you for no pay? In our world, it works a little bit different, but again, you need to be thinking along the lines of what AI can do and how comfortable you are. And if necessary, have conversations with your legal counsel and ask, what things should I be putting into my contracts to address ai? Do you need to disclose that you use AI as a tool? I am iffy on that one because I do not believe that we should just take AI and whatever they produce and then use it as is without any of our input and then hand it over. Because then that's not really, it's a tool, it's a work.

 (15:36):

Do you disclose to the clients that you use MuckRack for reporting? I mean, I do, but not in my contracts. I'm pretty transparent with clients like, oh, we use this to gather this. Here's what we can gather. But I think that we have to come to a place where we're comfortable. Is AI just another technological tool like your email system because it should just be another tech tool that you use?

Michelle Kane (16:03):

Agree, agree.

Karen Swim, APR (16:04):

I need this coming up a lot about do I put this in my contracts that I use AI? And I'm not sure why we would do that. Why? Because they're listing absolutely everything you list all of the technological tools that you're using in order to produce your work. But again, these are the kinds of things that I do think it's important to think about it and think about how we're using things and what needs to be disclosed and in what way, and what needs to be protected and what those protections should be. Because we are in a new era and I don't want any of us to be taken advantage of or to be devalued in this transitional time.

Michelle Kane (16:48):

And actually, I think that's an opportunity to bring it up to help frame it for the client, because I certainly wouldn't spell out to a client. Well, I wrote this in Word, so I use spellcheck for sure, and then I ran it through Grammarly just to check for plagiarism, even though I didn't plagiarize, but I just wanted to be sure. I mean, it could be exhaustive, but since AI is such a new, big, hairy thing, it's worth a conversation to say, Hey, I consider this a tool, which honestly makes me more efficient for you. But also, even though as AI is getting smarter, I mean the tool that I use, I've noticed some blips, the quality's taken a little hit. There's a lot of flowery pros in there that I'm like, Ugh, depending what I feed it. So all these things factor in to the conversations. And I think it's about having those conversations with your client, because again, being a PR practitioner, we're communicators, but we're also sometimes therapists and we're educators. We're all the things, whether they realize it or not.

Karen Swim, APR (17:58):

And here's a little AI hack for that, by the way, Michelle. And for our listening audience, when you are using ChatGPT to generate content and you're not happy with the style first, you can prompt it differently with the style, but then you can ask it to rewrite it in several different styles. So you can tell it specifically. You can say, rewrite this in conversational style or rewrite this. Give me three different styles, and it'll tell you what style it's using and rewrite things. And so sometimes you'll find that there's a mix of styles that kind of works for you and gets you thinking and able to pull it together. So yeah, you can get away from the AI-ness of it all,

Michelle Kane (18:44):

Lose the flowery prose.

Karen Swim, APR (18:47):

Yeah,

Michelle Kane (18:48):

That was junk. Try again.

Karen Swim, APR (18:51):

Although I have to tell you that sometimes it's really fun to give AI a little bit of license and give it some fun prompts and tell it to do something weird, because what you get back can be surprisingly just so creative.

Michelle Kane (19:08):

That's true. Yeah. So as we've been saying, we can have fun with it, but it is a serious development in all of our worlds and who knows what's to come. But as always, we want you to be as ready as possible, and we know that our solos are savvy smarties to begin with. So that already puts you steps ahead. So don't be afraid of it. But if you found value in this time together, please pass it around. Please share the Solo PR Pro love. And until next time, thanks for joining us for That Solo Life.