AI on the Lot 2024 Panel: How Screenwriters and Showrunners Are Using LLMs in the Creative Process

A panel at the AI on the Lot 2024 conference brought together writers, showrunners, and filmmakers to examine how large language models can be applied to screenwriting and storytelling. The discussion, moderated by IndieWire editor-in-chief Dana Harris-Bridson, featured Matt Nix (Burn Notice), Mark Goffman (The Irrational, The West Wing), filmmaker Joe Penna (formerly of Stability AI's Applied Machine Learning team), and animator/director Momo Wang (Illumination Entertainment).

The panel covered practical ground: what LLMs do well given their next-token prediction architecture, where they fall short in capturing the less codifiable elements of story structure, and how creative professionals can best integrate these tools to enhance rather than replace their process. Speakers brought perspectives spanning television, independent film, and studio animation, offering a cross-disciplinary look at AI-assisted writing workflows.