Orders from above

Author Chuck Wendig posted this recently:

Obviously I see the point he’s making—the ease of generative AI without the need for actual skill or to do anything but come up with the right words is what it’s all about—but I think his analogy is a bit off. The work is everything, sure, but the work is still being done in the situation Wendig describes… which was basically the situation in which Val Lewton produced his famous horror films for RKO’s B unit in the 1940s; the studio came up with the film’s title and left him to get on with the job of actually making the film. So Lewton had to organise the cast and crew and all of that. Actual work still had to be done. I know there’s other comparable cases in the film industry (though admittedly the specific instances aren’t leaping to mind as I write this) (EDIT: fucking American International, of COURSE. How could I have forgotten them?) where the production company came up with the ad campaign first and then made the movie. Similarly, if a book publisher gives an author a specific order for a book they want written, or a record company pulls its roster together to make a tribute album or something, if they’re not using generative AI then the work is being done, even if the creator of the work didn’t have the original idea. Like I said, I completely get Wendig’s point but the comparison doesn’t work for me…