Three years after the 2023 strikes raised alarms about artificial intelligence replacing entertainment workers, a surprising shift has occurred. Some of those same workers are now training the technology that once worried them. As film and television jobs grow increasingly difficult to find, writers, editors, and executives across Hollywood are quietly taking gig work just to pay the bills. This work is called Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback, or RLHF, and it involves fine-tuning AI models by providing human feedback on their outputs.

Hollywood workers explain why they're training AI models

Editor Gabe Sena turned to AI training after a stretch of unemployment. He told sources that he wanted to understand the technology rather than simply fear it. Former HBO development executive Steven Woolworth had a similar motivation. He described the work as a way to stay informed rather than bury his head in the sand while job hunting proved fruitless for over a year. Both found gigs through a recruiting platform called Mercor, which pairs domain experts with AI companies needing human feedback. This trend lines up with a broader industry pattern. Amazon, for example, has also turned to AI to cut film and TV production costs through its own dedicated studio, indicating that the technology is becoming deeply embedded in the entertainment sector.

The rise of RLHF work in Hollywood reflects a painful irony. During the 2023 strikes, unions like the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA fought hard to limit the use of AI in creative processes. Now, economic necessity is pushing many of those same creative professionals to contribute directly to the very systems they once protested. Some workers admit feeling conflicted, but the need for income overshadows the ethical discomfort.

What the work actually looks like once you're in it

Screenwriter Ruth Fowler described a far rougher experience in her own essay, detailing eight months and twenty contracts across five different platforms. The pay ranges from $16 per hour for entry-level annotation work up to $150 per hour for specialized writing tasks. She described abrupt project cancellations, shifting pay rates, and young, inexperienced managers overseeing workers decades into their careers. This variability makes it difficult for workers to rely on RLHF as a stable income source, yet many have no other options.

The nature of RLHF tasks varies. Some require rating the quality of AI-generated text, such as dialogue or scene descriptions. Others involve rewriting outputs to be more natural or engaging, or producing original creative content that serves as training data. For many Hollywood professionals, these tasks mimic their regular work but at lower pay and without the protections of union contracts or health benefits. The gig economy aspects are stark.

A growing AI industry built on real legal and ethical tension

RLHF work has expanded rapidly regardless. AI-related job postings within the arts nearly doubled between 2025 and 2026, even as lawsuits pile up alleging worker misclassification and unstable scheduling across the industry. Even Martin Scorsese has officially joined the AI camp, a sign of how far the acceptance of these tools has spread across the industry. Critics of generative AI in Hollywood, like Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, say they understand why struggling workers take these gigs despite the contradictions involved. For many in Hollywood right now, training the machine has become less about curiosity and more about simply making rent.

The legal landscape is uncertain. Multiple class-action lawsuits have been filed against AI companies by workers who claim they were misclassified as independent contractors, denying them overtime pay, benefits, and protections. Others allege that the platforms maintain arbitrary pay scales and cancel contracts without notice, leaving workers with no recourse. Regulators are beginning to examine these practices, but no comprehensive framework yet exists.

The broader context of entertainment industry decline

The shift toward AI training work is not occurring in a vacuum. The entertainment industry has seen significant contraction since the dual strikes of 2023. Studios have reduced production slates, streaming services have cut content budgets, and many traditional roles have disappeared or been consolidated. Even before the strikes, the rise of streaming had disrupted the economics of television and film, leading to fewer episodes per season and shorter production cycles.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that employment in motion picture and sound recording industries has declined by roughly 10% since 2022, with many of those losses concentrated in behind-the-scenes roles like editors, writers, and development executives. This hollowing out of middle-class creative jobs has forced many professionals to seek alternative sources of income. AI training work offers a way to stay connected to the industry while earning something, but it also accelerates the very trends that eliminated their original jobs.

The psychology of these workers is complex. Some view RLHF as a temporary survival tactic until the industry rebounds. Others see it as a form of vocational retraining, learning the skills needed to navigate a future where AI is integral to content creation. A few even find the work intellectually stimulating, enjoying the challenge of teaching machines to think more like humans. But for the majority, it is a reluctant compromise born of economic pressure.

The human cost and the road ahead

The stories of workers like Gabe Sena, Steven Woolworth, and Ruth Fowler illustrate the human cost of this transition. Each chose to engage with AI out of necessity, not ideology. They participate in a system that offers just enough pay to keep them afloat while simultaneously undermining their traditional career paths. This tension is unlikely to resolve soon. As AI models improve, the demand for human feedback may actually decrease, leaving these gig workers once again searching for new opportunities.

In the meantime, the AI industry continues to thrive on the labor of creative professionals who have nowhere else to turn. The ethical questions raised during the 2023 strikes remain unanswered. Who benefits from this arrangement? Who bears the risk? And when the next wave of automation arrives, will these workers be left behind once more? The answers are still unfolding, but for now, Hollywood's invisible workforce keeps the machines learning, one RLHF task at a time.

Source:Digital Trends News