WGA East Partners With Cloak to Block AI Script Scraping
The Writers Guild of America, East unveiled a partnership on Tuesday to help prevent artificial intelligence models from training on its members’ work. The software program Cloak generates file copies that remain fully readable for human users while rendering them entirely illegible to AI models. The encryption tool will be provided free to WGAE members as part of their union benefits program.
For the past three years, the assumption was that anything you put out onto the internet is at risk of being ingested by AI. Rishi Ambavanekar founded Cloak in September 2025 to disrupt that pipeline. Backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz’s startup accelerator program Speedrun and the University of Pennsylvania, the startup aims to restore creator control over digital text.
“Until now, there hasn’t been a real technically-sound way to fight back against AI and determine how the content you create actually interacts with it,” Ambavanekar stated regarding the tool’s release.
The software specifically targets large language models and automated data processors. Recent tests published by the startup claim effectiveness against Anthropic’s Claude up to Fable 5.1, Google’s Gemini up to 3.8, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT up to GPT-6 Astra. The encryption also blocks automated summaries generated by Google Drive, Gmail, and Adobe Acrobat.
WGA East Moves to Block AI Models from Training on Members’ Work with New Software Partner Cloak: ‘Give Agency Back to Writers’ https://t.co/dbTRcEQKrx
Guild Leadership Cites Existential Threats to Labor
Entertainment industry labor forces face ongoing disruption from generative artificial intelligence models capable of automating writing tasks. The WGAE and other unions have increasingly prioritized protective contract language during negotiations. This software partnership emerged directly from the guild’s dedicated AI Task Force.
“The WGAE partnership with Cloak expands our efforts to protect members’ work and fight back against AI companies exploiting writers and other creative workers,” WGA East president Tom Fontana stated. Members can now transmit scripts to producers or agents without risking unauthorized model training or automated emailattachment summarization.
An AI-proof copy could help keep a script from becoming training data or an AI-generated summary.WGA East members will get free access to Cloak, which its founder says is designed to give writers “agency” over how AI interacts with their work.Read more:… pic.twitter.com/BeF5WoAbNT
“Generative AI models are often falsely advertised on the promise that they will make our work obsolete, but the truth is, the creative process is human and always will be,” Cohen noted.
Non-Members Pay Additional Fee for Cloak Protection
WGAE members receive the Cloak software integration at no additional cost through their standard union benefits. Writers outside the union may also access the encryption service by registering their scripts directly through the guild’s official website.
Non-members face an additional fee of $10 to add Cloak protection, which is applied on top of pre-existing script registration costs. The partnership represents an expansion of the guild’s multi-pronged strategy, which combines collective bargaining agreements, legislative advocacy, and direct member education tools.
“I hope Cloak can keep creative writing in the hands of people and not as data being processed by machines,” Ambavanekar stated.
