SAG-AFTRA strike ends as AI deal reached, Hollywood still torn
The Hollywood actors’ union SAG-AFTRA concluded its strike on Nov. 9 after 118 days of picketing with new deals on various proposed stipulations including artificial intelligence (AI) usage.
Since then, the union has released a summary of its final deal with studios, which included nearly 4.5 pages of AI guidelines and a digital pamphlet spelling out the agreed-upon AI regulations for the industry.
The AI agreement is expected to come into effect 90 days after the ratification of the agreement. Its terms include defining AI in industry terms, the digital replication of performers and background actors, digital alterations and the establishment of semi-annual meetings between the union and producers over generative AI use.
According to a report from Rolling Stone, the contract was approved by 86% of the board of Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and is going to union voters on Nov. 12 with a 21-day voting period.
The deal defines and establishes coverage for the creation, use and alteration of “digital replicas” of performers. These digital replicas are copies of the voice or likeness of a performer for “portraying the performer in photography or soundtrack in which the performer did not actually perform.”
These “digital replicas” are categorized by those made in employment with studios and those made independently. Compensation for the latter will be bargained by the actors themselves, however for those employed directly from studios, compensation will be for the creation and use of their AI replicas and its use in any additional projects or other mediums - plus normal residuals.
It also laid out a definition for a new type of actor called a “synthetic performer.” Under the terms of
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