WGA East offers writers free AI-shielding software in Cloak deal
Key Takeaway: The Writers Guild of America East will give members free access to Cloak’s patent-pending software that makes scripts unreadable to AI models, extending the union’s fight over artificial intelligence beyond the contract.
The Writers Guild of America East has partnered with Cloak, an AI-shielding software company founded by Rishi Ambavanekar, to offer members free protection against artificial intelligence scraping, The Hollywood Reporter reported on Tuesday, 20 October 2026.
Cloak’s patent-pending software obfuscates documents so they are unreadable to most AI models while remaining fully readable and formatted for humans. The tool is aimed at a routine vulnerability in the industry: writers sending drafts, treatments and scripts to producers, executives and agents, where the work can be ingested for machine learning or reduced to automated summaries.
Under the deal, the union will offer Cloak to members at no cost. Non-members can add the protection for an additional $10 when registering scripts through WGAE Script Registration, Deadline reported.
A new front in the AI fight
WGA East president Tom Fontana framed the partnership as an escalation of the guild’s campaign against AI companies using writers’ work without consent.
The alliance extends the union’s hard-fought labour campaigns. During the 2023 WGA strike, the guild won its first contractual AI protections; leadership now views software tools as the next phase of a multi-pronged defence that also spans legislation and member education, Variety reported.
“The WGAE partnership with Cloak expands our efforts to protect members’ work and fight back against AI companies exploiting writers and other creative workers,” “We’re excited about the partnership with Cloak because it means members don’t need to worry that their work will be used to train AI models after they send it to producers or agents – or simply that the product of weeks, months, or years of work will be reduced to an AI-generated summary of an email attachment.”
Tom Fontana, WGA East president, in a statement carried by THR, Deadline, TheWrap and Variety
How Cloak works
Ambavanekar said he built Cloak to restore control to writers after years in which anything posted online was treated as fair game for AI training, in a statement carried by TheWrap.
Larry J. Cohen, co-chair of the WGAE AI Task Force, said the partnership was a natural extension of the guild’s push for better AI safeguards through contracts, legislation and education.
“For the past three years, the assumption was that anything you put out onto the internet is at risk of being ingested by AI, so I developed Cloak as a way to give agency back to writers to protect against unwanted AI training, AI notes and analysis,” “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. I hope Cloak can keep creative writing in the hands of people and not as data being processed by machines. I want to thank the WGAE and look forward to seeing writers have more confidence in sharing their work far and wide.”
Rishi Ambavanekar, founder of Cloak, in a statement carried by TheWrap
Beyond the contract
Cohen argued that generative AI is oversold as a replacement for writers and said the creative process remains fundamentally human.
“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. That’s why the Guild is advocating for better protections against and awareness of the risks posed by AI – not just through our contracts, but through legislation and member education. Our partnership with Cloak is a natural and necessary extension of our fight to protect our members’ creative rights and the integrity of their work.”
Larry J. Cohen, co-chair of the WGAE AI Task Force, quoted by Deadline
Key Story Metrics
| Figure | Reported Status |
|---|---|
| Free | Cloak access for WGA East members (THR, Deadline, TheWrap, Variety) |
| $10 | Add-on for non-members registering scripts via WGAE Script Registration |
✓ Verified
Verified: The Writers Guild of America East announced a partnership with Cloak on Tuesday, 20 October 2026. Members get free access to the patent-pending AI-shielding software; non-members pay an additional $10 with script registration. The software renders documents unreadable to most AI models while preserving human readability.
- The Hollywood Reporter (Katie Kilkenny, 20 Oct 2026): Writers Guild East Inks Deal With AI-Shielding Software Company
- Deadline (Katie Campione, 20 Oct 2026): WGA East Is Trying To Help Writers Make Their Work ‘Unreadable’ To AI Models
- TheWrap (Kayla Cobb, 20 Oct 2026): WGAE Partners With AI-Shielding Tool Cloak
- Variety (Corbin Bolies, 20 Oct 2026): WGA East Strikes Deal With Cloak to Safeguard Screenplays from AI Scraping
Editor’s note: This article draws on reporting available up to 20 October 2026. Deal terms are as announced by the union and Cloak.
