Wattpad uses a machine-learning program called StoryDNA to scan all the stories on its platform and surface the ones that seem like candidates for …

Intellectual property is the lifeblood of entertainment, and Hollywood badly needs a transfusion. Stuck recycling the same ideas and producing the same franchises, Hollywood is now looking to podcasts, news articles, and even songs and paintings to dredge up stories that could be hits with global audiences. Finding the right stories--and developing them into things that actually exist on screen--can be an arduous, money-draining process. One company thinks it has found an efficient new way to sift through millions of user-generated stories to find the next Hollywood hits: artificial intelligence. And, on occasion, it actually brings fans of those stories into the arcane process of developing them for the screen.