WGA East Gives Members Free Cloak Access to Help Shield Scripts From AI Training

The Writers Guild of America East gave its members free access to Cloak, software that makes screenplays resistant to scraping by most AI models while preserving their formatting, as Variety reports. The guild says members can then send scripts to producers or agents without worrying the work will be used to train AI models.

• Free for WGAE members. Cloak is now a member benefit at the Writers Guild of America East, a union of more than 7,500 members in film, television, news, podcasts and online media.
• $10 add-on for non-members. Writers outside the guild can add Cloak when registering a script with the WGAE for $10 on top of existing registration fees, IndieWire reports.
• A copy that stays readable for people. The guild says Cloak's AI-shielding software returns a file that keeps its formatting for human readers but resists AI analysis, scraping and training.
• Aimed at training, notes and analysis. Founder Rishi Ambavanekar says the tool protects against unwanted AI training, AI notes and analysis.
• Part of a wider guild AI effort. The partnership comes out of the WGAE's AI work, which includes an AI Task Force, contract protections and legislation.

Cloak hands writers an AI-resistant copy of each script to circulate

Cloak's patent-pending software renders documents unreadable to most AI models while preserving their original formatting, according to the guild's announcement. Members and script registrants receive a copy of their file to send out.

The guild calls Script Registration one of its most popular services, used by tens of thousands of writers and other creatives each year. The goal is peace of mind when writers send scripts to studio execs, producers, agents, actors and editors, according to Deadline.

WGAE president Tom Fontana said members also need not worry that "the product of weeks, months, or years of work will be reduced to an AI-generated summary of an email attachment."

Ambavanekar co-founded Cloak with Tyler Sacharow, and the startup won the $75,000 Perlman Grand Prize in the Penn Venture Lab Startup Challenge. The company works with publishers ranging from news to novels to screenplays.

Ambavanekar said there hasn't been "a real technically-sound way to fight back against AI and determine how the content you create actually interacts with it."

Neither the guild nor the coverage names which AI models Cloak resists or explains how the protection works. IndieWire describes it as an encryption tool.

The deal responds to script training the guild says isn't fair use

According to Variety, the partnership responds to years of AI models training on screenplays without explicit permission, which has raised questions about the legality of using those scripts. The WGAE maintains that training AI models on scripts does not constitute fair use.

The guild lays out that position on its AI action page, which states: "If AI needs to use our words, we deserve to have a say in how it's used." The page also acknowledges "there are ways AI can support creative work."

Larry J. Cohen, co-chair of the WGAE AI Task Force, called the deal a "natural and necessary extension of our fight to protect our members' creative rights and the integrity of their work." He said the guild is pushing for protections through its contracts and "through legislation and member education."

Cloak joins contract protections, a news-labeling bill and the Urbanworld split in the WGAE's AI push

The Cloak deal joins a string of WGAE policy and organizing moves on AI.

• Urbanworld split. The guild ended its 12-year partnership with the Urbanworld Film Festival, the BIPOC-focused festival, over its decision to add a programming lane for AI-generated films and shorts, Variety reports.
• 2023 strike and contract. AI was a pillar of the guild's negotiations during its 148-day strike in 2023, and the guild says the 2023 MBA established AI protections for film, TV and streaming writers.
• AI Task Force. The WGAE Council's task force draws members from all three guild work sectors and meets monthly to track AI's effect on members' professions and develop education and advocacy.
• News-labeling bill. The guild backs the New York FAIR News Act, which it says passed the state legislature and went to Governor Kathy Hochul, and which would require disclaimers on news content substantially or wholly created by AI.
• #AINeedsHumans. The guild runs the campaign to mobilize members around improper uses of AI.