Hollywood Creatives Are Training AI to Replace Them — and Getting Paid $12–$200/hr

Hollywood creatives are quietly taking gig work to train AI models to replicate their own skills, according to a Guardian investigation. Facing a severe industry slump, award-winning writers, directors, and producers are being paid between $12 and $200 per hour to teach AI systems how to do jobs they'd normally be hired for themselves.

Why They're Doing It

Production is down "35% or something insane," says Ruth Fowler, a screenwriter and producer whose credits include Rules of the Game (BBC One) and Little Disasters (Paramount+). "I was thinking: wow, I'm always broke." With film and TV jobs shrinking, she and others have turned to training AI as a stopgap.

The trend is fueled by a massive industry downturn:

• Shoot days in LA fell 48% between 2021 and 2025 (FilmLA Research)
• US motion picture and sound recording jobs dropped 28%, from 450,000 in July 2022 to 326,000 in May 2026 (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Netflix used AI in 300 of its 1,000 titles in 2026
• Directors like Ron Howard are embracing AI for documentary work

What the Training Involves

The gigs come from training agencies with contracts at major AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. Tasks are highly production-specific. Fowler trained an AI to devise a two-day shoot schedule—including permits, location hazards, daylight conditions, personnel per shot, and child protection needs—based on emails and scripts. She also taught it to assemble pitch decks for film/TV ideas.

Another LA documentary director, speaking anonymously, trained an AI to transcribe video footage. He had to help it separate overlapping voices from a Little League game clip, and create visual guides for speakers (e.g., "blond woman with a buttoned-down shirt with a gold necklace") and characterize accents (English, Scottish, African American, Asian).

"I describe to friends that I was essentially handed a shovel and asked to dig the grave of my profession," he said.

The Ethics Puzzle

For many, the work is a moral dilemma. "I would not have embarked on this work if I did not have a realistic and perhaps a bit fatalistic understanding of how the world is working," the director added. "This is simply a thing that will be with us in the future and no amount of abstaining will prevent it."

Beyond Hollywood, Boston Consulting Group estimates AI could eliminate 10%–15% of US jobs and reshape over half of all roles.

The full Guardian piece includes more voices and details on the trade-offs these creative professionals are making.