Hollywood writers and producers are being paid to train AI

Hollywood writers, directors and producers are finding an unusual new type of work: helping artificial intelligence learn how film and television production actually works.

AI training companies including Mercor, Micro1 and Handshake have been recruiting people with professional creative experience to assess and improve the work produced by AI systems. The jobs can involve everything from reviewing scripts and analysing video to checking production schedules and judging whether a pitch would make sense in the real entertainment industry.

One recent Micro1 role sought producers with more than five years of credited experience to create realistic production-management tasks. Examples included dealing with budgets, adjusting schedules and coordinating crews and suppliers, with advertised pay of between $45 and $85 an hour.

Other specialist AI training work can pay considerably more or less depending on the expertise required, the project and the company involved. Reported rates across the wider sector have ranged from around $12 to $200 an hour.

The timing helps explain why some established creatives are accepting the work. Film and television production in Los Angeles remains well below previous levels, with 4,711 on-location shoot days recorded in the second quarter of 2026. That was almost 13% lower than the same period in 2025 and 36% below the five-year average.

For somebody between productions, paid AI work can therefore provide another source of income. The uncomfortable part is that they may be teaching systems to become better at tasks that have traditionally provided work for people in their own industry.

That does not mean an AI system can suddenly replace a writer, director or producer. In fact, companies are hiring experienced professionals precisely because the technology still needs human judgement to identify when a script feels wrong, a schedule is unrealistic or a production plan simply would not work.

The question is what happens as those systems improve. Some of the more repetitive work involved in preparing productions could eventually be handled faster by AI, while human creatives remain responsible for the ideas, decisions and collaboration that shape the finished programme or film. Others are understandably concerned that fewer entry-level or supporting jobs could remain if studios decide some of those tasks can be automated.

That tension makes these jobs particularly revealing. Hollywood creatives are not just debating what AI might eventually mean for their industry. Some are already being paid to help teach it how their industry works.

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Sources: FilmLA, Micro1, Mercor and Handshake.