Netflix is paying big for AI jobs amid WGA and SAG-AFTRA concerns

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The use of Artificial Intelligence has been a major talking point amid the writers’ and actors’ strikes.

Everyone in Hollywood, on the labor side, is worried about the use of AI. They don’t want to eliminate it completely, but they are asking for clear and written protections and guidelines regarding its use.

It’s something that Justine Bateman sounded the alarm on during the beginning of the WGA strike and that SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher commented on during the first day of the actors’ strike.

“I was in Santa Monica and there was a little box rolling around making deliveries and my heart broke because there was somebody on a bicycle that used to do that and they are out of work today and that’s what’s happening in our industry and for workers around the world,” Drescher said on the picket line.

“The Nanny” star made those comments in front of the Netflix building in Hollywood.

Now, the streamer has posted two jobs in the AI space.

The company is looking for a machine learning platform product manager. That salary ranges from $300,000 to $900,000.

From the job description, this position will lead the streamer’s efforts in the AI realm. The company wants this person to help them “buy and create great content, help “members choose the right title for them through personalization,” optimize “payment processing and other revenue-focused initiatives.”

The job also asks that the applicant demonstrates the “ability to create and execute a vision for a (centralized) machine learning infrastructure team that supports machine learning practitioners and data scientists across a variety of use cases.”

There is another posting for an AI and machine learning technical director for its gaming department. The salary range for that role is between $450,000 to $650,000.

The salaries prove to be very lucrative, but for actors and writers- they say they won’t be getting the same pay for the technology.

Union members told Business Insider that studios have offered to pay actors a day rate in exchange for scanning and creating a “digital likeness.” The outlet noted that the day rate for background actors pays as little as $200 a day. This is per the SAG-AFTRA contract.

The WGA has been on the picket lines until early May and SAG-AFTRA voted to strike on July 13. There’s no word as to when a possible agreement between the studios and the unions will be made.

KTLA 5 has reached out to Netflix for a comment about the two job postings but hasn’t heard back.