Jack Thorne: Authorship in the Age of AI

The award-winning screenwriter takes an urgent look at what AI means for the future of storytelling, writing and our imaginations. Join acclaimed screenwriter (Adolescence, His Dark Materials) and Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) union president Jack Thorne for a talk weeding out some of the thorniest issues at the heart of our current creative crossroads. He tackles the burning questions facing creativity today: How is AI-generated content (or ‘slop’) changing our ideas of authorship? How can we protect both this generation and future generations from the change that is certainly going to happen? Writers are a group for whom, whilst instruments may have changed, from chalk to the quill to the pen to the typewriter to the computer, the process of creation hasn’t really ever altered in human history. With AI it is, because words arranged as thoughts can now be artificially generated. A version of imagination is now replicable. As such, writers are facing their moment of enclosure, their moment of rapid industrialisation, and how they cope and how they’re supported, is crucial. Copyright is not just for lawyers, it is a vital protection against future incursion. Thorne considers how copyright might protect the industry’s entry points for the future – encouraging people to create and tell stories even as AI evolves. With the cultural industries becoming ever more crucial to the UK’s economy, Thorne argues for an urgent look at where we go next, and what we need from the g