The WGA haven't been the most far-sighted negotiators in the past. They made major concessions about residuals when DVD's were replacing broadcast, and again during the 2007-8 strike when streaming was beginning to replace DVD's. Hopefully they'll stick to their goals this time. But it won't be easy. The AMPTP is fighting a war of attrition.

AI is a threat in two ways: in the short term, the prodcos can use it for leverage in negotiating by shredding collective bargaining. The AMPTP has stated that they don't consider AI a writer. That means anyone (writers, directors, producers, janitors) using AI are ostensibly not crossing a picket line by submitting an AI work. In the long term, AI will not replace writing; it will replace creative, original writing. The prodco ideal is to eliminate most writers from the payroll and force anyone remaining to use AI as an adjunct (for brainstorming, outlining, research etc.). This is why TV producers want to shrink the size of writers' rooms and shorten the time writers spend creating content.

It's idealistic to expect producers to think about anything other than profit--they're bean counters, not creators. From their point of view, a bad movie that makes a big profit is better than a good movie that makes a small profit. But viewers should be concerned that everything bad that people label as "Hollywood" (derivative, hackneyed story lines; stereotypical characters; etc.) is about to get a whole lot worse.

I tend to watch almost entirely British and Scandinavian mysteries, so I won't suffer so much from the strike or its likely unfortunate outcome. But anyone watching American film and TV may get a sense of "Haven't I seen this before?" if the strike goes badly for the WGA.