WGA East Strikes Deal With Cloak to Safeguard Screenplays from AI Scraping

The Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) has formed a strategic partnership with Cloak, an AI protection software designed to prevent screenplays from being harvested and used to train artificial intelligence models without permission. This alliance aims to reinforce the creative rights of writers by offering WGAE members complimentary access to Cloak, while non-members can obtain the service for a nominal fee upon registering their scripts with the guild.

Cloak’s technology works by making screenplays resistant to extraction by most AI training systems, preserving the original formatting and thereby making it considerably more difficult for AI models to utilize these works as training data. This development comes amid growing concerns over the widespread unauthorized use of scripts by AI developers, a practice that has ignited debate about copyright infringement and fair use in the entertainment industry.

For years, AI models have been trained on vast datasets that include screenplays, often without explicit consent from the writers, leading to questions about the legality and ethics of such practices. The WGAE has taken a firm stance, asserting that the use of writers’ scripts for AI training does not qualify as fair use, and this partnership with Cloak represents a proactive measure to protect members’ intellectual property.

According to WGAE president Tom Fontana, the collaboration with Cloak enhances the union’s ongoing efforts to shield writers from exploitation by AI companies. The agreement offers reassurance that scripts sent to producers, agents, or other industry professionals will not be involuntarily harvested for AI training purposes. This initiative addresses a critical vulnerability for writers whose work, often the product of extensive time and creative effort, could otherwise be reduced to AI-generated summaries or derivative content.

Rishi Ambavanekar, the founder of Cloak, developed the tool with the intent of restoring control to writers over how their creations interact with AI technologies. Ambavanekar highlighted the absence of robust technical solutions to combat unwanted AI training and emphasized Cloak’s potential to maintain creative writing within human hands rather than allowing it to be mined as raw data for machine processing. He expressed optimism that the partnership would empower writers to share their work confidently and broadly, knowing it is safeguarded.

This collaboration is part of the WGAE’s broader approach to addressing the challenges posed by artificial intelligence. The guild has established an AI task force, co-chaired by Larry J. Cohen, which views this deal as a natural extension of their commitment to defend the creative integrity and legal rights of their members. Cohen has underscored the human essence of the creative process, challenging the misleading narratives that generative AI threatens to replace human creativity.

Beyond technical defenses, the WGAE is actively pursuing comprehensive protections through contract negotiations, legislative advocacy, and member education. The guild’s resistance to AI integration in filmmaking extends to recent actions such as terminating its long-standing partnership with the Urbanworld film festival after the festival introduced a dedicated programming track for AI-generated films and shorts.

The WGAE has also launched the #AINeedsHumans campaign, mobilizing its membership against the improper and exploitative applications of AI technology. AI-related concerns were a significant facet of the guild’s 148-day strike in 2023, reflecting the intensity of the debate around the role of artificial intelligence in creative industries.

While details on the implementation timeline and the broader industry response remain limited, the partnership between WGAE and Cloak marks a significant development in the ongoing effort to balance technological innovation with the protection of creative rights. By equipping writers with tools to control how their work interacts with AI, the guild positions itself at the forefront of a critical intersection between creativity and emerging technology.