SAG-AFTRA Ends Historic Strike with AI Protections for Actors

The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), representing 160,000 industry professionals, has ended its longest strike in history, lasting 118 days. The strike was brought to a halt following an agreement with major Hollywood studios, providing actors with protection against artificial intelligence (AI). However, some members of SAG-AFTRA are urging fellow actors to vote against the deal, feeling it falls short of adequate protection.

The SAG-AFTRA board approved the new contract with 86% of its members voting in favor. However, the decision still requires ratification by the union’s full membership. The agreement includes protections such as mandatory consent from performers or representatives of deceased performers to create a “digital replica” of an actor. This development comes in light of the latest AI news & AI tools that have made such technological advancements possible.

Under the contract, performers must be compensated for the days they would have worked in person if their digital replica is used. Similarly, background actors must be paid if their replicas are used as principal characters. Residual payments will be owed to actors when their digital replicas are used onscreen, compensating them for rebroadcasts or reuses of their work. Employers must also receive consent from performers to use their likenesses in a project for which they were not employed or to digitally alter their performances.

The contract further allows employers to create “synthetic performers,” which are nonhuman and artificially generated. However, if a synthetic performer’s facial features are recognizable as a real actor, performer’s consent is required. This provision has been a focal point of discussion, given the rise of AI images generator and AI video generator technologies.

Actress Justine Bateman, an AI adviser to the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee, expressed concerns over the language used regarding artificial intelligence in the proposed contract. Bateman pointed out potential loopholes, including an exception allowing studios to use digital doubles without consent when the photography or soundtrack remains substantially as scripted, performed, and/or recorded. She criticized this as vague, open to a studio’s interpretation.

Bateman also took issue with another exception that allows employers to use digital doubles without a performer’s consent when the project is a “comment, criticism, scholarship, satire or parody, a docudrama, or historical or biographical work.” She warned that actors could find themselves in a project they never consented to, performing actions they were not informed of, without any compensation.

The “synthetic performer” clause was deemed the most serious issue by Bateman. She questioned why a union representing human actors would approve of those same actors being replaced by an AI object. This concern is particularly relevant in the context of artificial intelligence generated images and performances.

Several actors have expressed their intention to vote against the deal due to the AI terms and have encouraged their colleagues to do the same. Concerns have also been raised that actors may feel pressured to give consent for AI usage for fear of not being hired.

In a recent meeting, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher defended the deal, criticizing those who plan to vote against it based on a single issue. Lead negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland also defended the agreement, stating that any contract completely forbidding the use of AI would have been unrealistic.

The lengthy SAG-AFTRA strike, along with a writers’ strike, was primarily due to concerns over AI. The union resisted studio proposals allowing employers to use likenesses of deceased performers without consent and pushed for compensation when AI scans of actors are re-used.

Whether SAG-AFTRA members will vote to ratify the contract is yet to be seen. If rejected, the strike will resume, marking a first in SAG-AFTRA history. As AI continues to shape the entertainment industry, the outcome of this vote will undoubtedly have significant implications for the future of the profession.