Jack Thorne Warns Fellow Scriptwriters Are Using AI 'to Cheat,' Urges Law Banning Undisclosed AI Scripts

Thorne co-wrote the Netflix drama Adolescence and wrote the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. He is president of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain.

He said he had spoken to a number of executives and studio heads about their use of AI and received "hugely different responses," and that he had also heard anecdotal accounts from writers close to him. "What I did hear from them – and what anecdotally I've heard from a few writers close to me – is that some in my profession are using AI to cheat," he said.

Thorne drew a distinction between using AI as an aid and using it as a substitute for writing. "What I'm not talking about here is using AI to help – to discuss things with, to check for spelling errors or help with layout," he said. "I'm talking about using AI as a replacement for endeavour, as a replacement for writing at all. Using prompts instead of writing words. That is, simply put, failing to write, they're cheating their employers in doing so, and they're cheating their fellow writers."

He warned that "if publishers, studios, streamers, can point to the writer as the problem, that gives them the excuse to behave however they'd like with content." He said passing AI work off as one's own "needs to be unlawful," adding: "If you use AI to generate content and you do not declare it as such, then that is fraud and the companies you do it to should be entitled to prosecute you."

To discourage the practice, he said, "the impact should be sizeable, and that requires laws but also us as an industry responding." He compared it to universities threatening expulsion over AI-written essays, saying undisclosed AI text should carry professional consequences, and said broadcasters including the BBC and Channel 4 should threaten sanctions against those found to have used AI to generate their work. "To protect the most vulnerable, it is essential," he said. "As writers, what we are is what we make, and both the law and our industry should be absolutely crystal clear on that."

Thorne also said AI must not be allowed to impersonate actors, directors and writers.

He criticised the government's inaction on protecting writers' intellectual property from AI models that scrape material for training, saying Keir Starmer's administration had been "a bit dazzled by tech" and lamenting a failure to protect writers' copyright. The way ministers act over the next five years, he said, "will define what the next hundred years looks like for every writer in this country."

Last year Starmer's government abandoned a proposal that would have required artists and copyright holders to actively opt out of having their material fed into AI systems, after a backlash. Ministers instead held a consultation on the issue.

"There are so many things the government could be doing," Thorne said. "Crucially, observation without intervention for fear of upsetting their apple cart could be replaced by observation with intervention for fear of upsetting our apple cart. The pieces of AI we use cannot be built using thievery. Cannot be built on a copyright crime. That's what government is there for, to set lines in an argument." He added: "This requires government leadership. In fact, it requires our government to take global leadership."

A government spokesperson said: "Copyright laws must protect the UK's position as a creative powerhouse while unlocking the extraordinary potential of AI-driven innovation. We are doing the work that's required to get the right outcomes so both the creative and technical sectors can flourish in this country."