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We have just a little bit over a month before season two of Andor drops. I cannot freaking wait. Talk about the perfect show for the moment that we are in. If you aren’t familiar with Andor, it’s a prequel to the events of Rogue One, which itself is a prequel that leads directly into the beginning of A New Hope. Essentially, it tells the story of how Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) ended up as a member of the Rebel Alliance in their scrappy fight against the Empire.
For a while, Andor’s showrunner, Tony Gilroy, had planned to follow the example of other successful series and publish season one as a “script book” so fans could buy a compilation of the first season’s scripts in book form. Succession has successfully published the scripts from its first four seasons in book format. According to Gilroy, they had put the entire project together and had every intention of releasing it…and then, AI blew up thanks to ChatGPT and became mainstream. So, to prevent his scripts from being fed to AI, Gilroy canceled the book project completely.
“Andor” creator Tony Gilroy recently told Collider that he will not be making any of the scripts for the “Star Wars” series public out of fear they will be used to train artificial intelligence systems. Gilroy had been planning to release the scripts for the show’s first season in a book format that fans could purchase, similar to shows such as HBO’s “Succession.” However, the rise of AI effectively killed that plan.
“I wanted to do it,” Gilroy said about releasing the scripts. “We put it together. It’s really cool. I’ve seen it, I loved it. AI is the reason we’re not. In the end, it would be 1,500 pages that came directly off this desk. I mean, terribly sadly, it’s just too much of an X-ray and too easily absorbed. Why help the f-cking robots anymore than you can? So, it was an ego thing. It was vanity that makes you want to do it, and the downside is real. So, vanity loses.”
“Andor” is gearing up to return for its second season on April 22. The first season of the show took place over the course of roughly a year in the life of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) as he transforms from a small-time criminal to a man prepared to join the fight against the Galactic Empire. The 12-episode second season is split into four chapters of three episodes each. Each chapter will cover a few consecutive days in each successive year before the events of “Rogue One.”
“The writers on the show and myself, it’s a pretty fancy bunch of writers, really, in a way. Everybody’s very experienced,” Gilroy told Collider about his staff. “We only get together for five or six days in the beginning to talk about the story, and then we kind of go, and they do their thing, and then they go away. But I always have them as a reference to call upon.”
Joining Luna in “Andor” Season 2 are returning cast members Stellan Skarsgård, Genevieve O’Reilly, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Faye Marsay, Varada Sethu and Forest Whitaker.
”Why help the f-cking robots anymore than you can? Hell yeah, Tony! Sadly, someone out there has probably already fed the actual episodes to AI for some reason or other. That said, I don’t blame Tony for protecting his intellectual property and not wanting to help feed the AI beast himself. I don’t think all AI is bad, but I do think without regulation and a solution to its negative environmental impact, it’s a dangerous, slippery slope that needs to be addressed now. It’s a bummer that he decided to scrap the book, though, because Star Wars fans probably would have been all over that.
If you’ve never seen Andor, the first season finale has this incredible monologue by Fiona Shaw, who plays Maarva Andor. Without going into too much detail, it’s about how it’s time for the people of the galaxy to stand up and fight the Empire. If you want to feel inspired, you can watch it below (here’s a fan-transcription) and you don’t need to know anything about the series or movies to appreciate it.
Good for him. I don’t think the general public realizes what a scourge and damage AI is for the writing community. I have several friends whose published works have been stolen by OpenAI and Meta, fed into their machines without consent. Not only is it a violation of IP laws, and basically thumbing their nose at them “nah, nah, you’re too big to stop us,” it’s directly hurting their income. These aren’t big names like Margaret Atwood or Stephen King; they’re mid-list authors lucky to make $50k a year. They have families to support. And now they have to fight for their livelihoods against a bunch a white, tech-bro Silicon Valley bullies (and, yes, several of them are POC).
And, if you’ve ever read any of the “writing” generated by ChatGPT, it’s absolute crap. Mind-numbingly bad. As an editor, I’d send it back and fire the writer. So, yeah, I’m glad bigger names are taking a stand. It’s bleak times around my friends circle 🙁
Totally agree with everything you wrote @Dena Landon! I also have author and artist friends who’ve had their work stolen to train AI, and it’s infuriating how that theft is being met with general shrugs and a “Well, what are you gonna do?” attitude. It’s equally bad for copywriters like me, who are losing work because people think they can get good enough copy out of ChatGPT and other AI tools. (Spoiler: they can’t. Yet.) Most people don’t even consider the ethics of using AI and way too many don’t understand the horrific toll these very mediocre products take on our environment.
I’m not anti-AI and believe there is a place for this technology. But the greedy tech-bros trying to push it on us without an ounce of ethical consideration are the absolute worst. I’m glad Tony Gilroy is taking a stand. I wish more prominent creators would to help protect the emerging artists who can’t afford to fight these deep-pocketed villains.
Watching all the authors I admire search their work in that database Meta stole yesterday and realise their heart and souls and blood sweat and tears were fucking stolen by fucking Zuckerburg yesterday was unbearable. Good for Tony.
It’s a sin & a shame that the human race is so inhumane…that technology is NEVA used to help society as a whole…but to exploit it…😒
As a person who is newly disabled and whose brain…dosen’t work the way it used to…the AI components in Alexa & MS365 have been invaluable in helping me maintain my schedule…remember appointments and craft business letters while I navigate and manage my illness…I don’t have meltdowns like I did in 2021 & 2022…because I couldn’t remember words…or couldn’t remember how to use the business application softwares which were second nature to me prior to my illness…
It’s just….so…😱💔😪
Given what I’ve seen while job-hunting, I strongly suspect companies are feeding writing samples from applicants into AI— but not hiring anyone. 🤬🤬🤬 When you keep seeing the same jobs listed for weeks—and application writing requirements for them are ridiculously demanding—something is wrong. Good on Gilroy for taking a stand.
Andor is so damn good.
And for the US of fascism, pretty timely.
Excited for the 2nd and final season.
Andor us my favorite of all the Star Wars shows, can’t wait!