#Steven Soderbergh: Streaming Data Transparency a Bigger Worry Than AI

Steven Soderbergh says that among all the issues facing Hollywood during dual actors and writers strikes, the one that “keeps me up at night” is data transparency — or the lack of it — from streaming platforms.

In an interview with Defector, Soderbergh — promoting his self-funded web series Command Z — said that while using artificial intelligence in the creative process is a serious issue, he’s more concerned that media companies are hiding something, whether good or bad, with their lack of transparency.

The filmmaker noted that with the projects he’s made for Warner Bros. Discovery’s streamer Max (including the recently released Full Circle), he was given “adjectives” instead of data, with the company telling him things like “We feel good about these numbers.”

“There are two potential reasons that we’re not getting all of the information,” he told Defector. “One is that they’re all making a lot more money than anybody knows and that they’re willing to tell us. The other is they’re making a lot less money than anybody knows. And they don’t want Wall Street to look under the hood of this thing in any significant way because there’ll be a reckoning that will be quite unpleasant. It’s one of those two.”

Even if it’s the latter, Soderbergh said he’d still prefer to work in an environment “where I know what’s going on.”

“If we tear this thing down to the studs, and find out that the math is funky, it’s going to be quite a transformation,” he continued. “And so my feeling — and I’m operating from a place of real privilege — is the sooner we find out the better, because one way or another, it’s gotta get rebuilt, you might as well start now.”

AI, however, is less of a concern for Soderbergh, who admits to having used it to create some conceptual images for an upcoming project. But he doubts that AI can really replicate the work of humans in writing and directing.

“It is my impression of the executives that I’m working with, or was working with, that they don’t need any more work. That they are overwhelmed,” Soderbergh said. “And the idea of riding herd over a department that’s going to generate new material, based on their ideas through AI, that will then have to be curated and made better by humans? I wouldn’t do it. I just don’t think we can be replaced like that. I just don’t.”

Soderbergh is a member of the Directors Guild of America, which ratified a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in June. He is not part of the Writers Guild of America, having become a “financial core” non-member in 1995 — meaning he can still benefit from the guild’s protections for writers but can’t vote in WGA elections or run for leadership posts, among other restrictions.