Actors Protest Studios’ Attempt to Use Their Likeness Without Fair Compensation Through Rejected ‘AI Proposal’
After failed negotiations with Hollywood studios, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) leaders announced their decision to go on strike. The Alliance of Motion Picture of Television Producers (AMPTP) revealed that the rejected agreement included an innovative AI proposition aimed at safeguarding performers’ digital representations. According to the AMPTP, this AI deal would necessitate the consent of actors for the development and utilization of digital replicas or any digital modifications of their performances. However, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland contradicted this claim during a press conference, suggesting that the proposal was, in fact, the complete opposite.
Crabtree-Ireland described the upcoming AI proposal as a backdoor way for studios to gain perpetual rights to an actor’s likeness. “In that groundbreaking AI proposal, they propose that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get a day’s pay and the company should own the scan, their image, their likeness and be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want without consent and without compensation,” the national executive claimed in response to the negotiations to the question about “So if you think this is a groundbreaking proposition, I suggest you think again.”
While the studio’s AI proposal isn’t the only reason the union voted to strike, it’s a good example of the kinds of changes in the industry that SAG-AFTRA hopes to address with the strike. In recent years, studios have used technology to age, revive, and sometimes completely replace actors. How the industry deals with rights such as the performer may well develop into a key issue in the near future.
“Actors deserve a contract that reflects the changes in the industry,” Crabtree-Ireland said at a press conference announcing the strike. “The current model devalues our members and affects their ability to get by.”
In any case, the strike itself makes history. SAG-AFTRA members join the Writers Guild of America with a bang. The two groups have not gone on strike at the same time since the 1960s.
