The writers on Jeopardy! were among the 11,000 Writers Guild of America members who hit the picket lines over a month ago, demanding fair contracts in the changing landscape of entertainment. As Mayim Bialik chose to exit the season early to stand in solidarity with the WGA, Ken Jennings came in to finish out the already-written games. That apparently didn’t go over so well with some members of the crew, however, the Jeopardy! GOAT made his feelings about the writers known when he spoke about the show recently, calling their work “a piece of art.”
Job security for WGA’s members amid the increasing popularity of artificial intelligence is a big issue for the striking writers, and Ken Jennings weighed in on the issue in a conversation with the New Yorker. The interviewer pointed out that the Jeopardy! co-host had praised the clue-writing in one of his books, pointing out that it’s not just about knowing the facts, but that the writers often include a twist or surprise. Jennings said:
Yeah. I realized that playing Jeopardy!— there’s a level of psychoanalysis, where these clues were not written by ChatGPT. A human intelligence had to write them, and that person might have the same aesthetics for fact and knowledge that I do. What would delight or surprise them? As a piece of art, how does this work?
It’s been said that even if contestants don’t know the correct response right away, there are often hints within the clue or category that can lead someone to the answer. That nuanced writing, according to Ken Jennings, is something that must come from human intelligence, not A.I. He continued:
The writers are the engine that runs Jeopardy! More than the contestants, more than the host, it’s a show about the words. And it maybe has more words in every half hour than any other kind of show. Sixty-one of those very dense, tightly, carefully written, doubly researched clues. It’s almost like each one is a little haiku or a villanelle, engineered to try to get the player to exactly the right degree of difficulty and proximity.
He certainly does make it sound like an art form! Ken Jennings isn’t one to underestimate the capabilities of artificial intelligence, either. In 2011, he and Brad Rutter — two of the biggest winners in Jeopardy! history — played against the IBM computer system Watson and lost.
Ken Jennings is also more familiar than most with the work that the writers put into the Jeopardy! clues. In addition to serving as a host of the quiz show, he holds the record for most consecutive games won with 74, which came from his time as a contestant back in 2004.
It remains to be seen how long the WGA strike will last and if Jeopardy!’s next season will be affected. When it comes to the writers, however, both Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings have made their stances pretty clear as to how valuable they find that work. Be sure to see what is coming soon to TV and streaming with our 2023 TV schedule.
