Over the weekend, complaints surfaced from some SAG-AFTRA members about some of the language in the new deal with the major Hollywood studios (represented by AMPTP).
In some cases, there were allegations that members were being asked to ratify the deal without seeing the full rundown of deal language. And some members - such as Justine Bateman - argued the language in the new deal regarding the use of AI didn't offer enough protection to actors.
On Sunday, SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee Jason Winston George posted a rebuttal to that criticism on Twitter, arguing that many of the critics had not seen the final deal language and/or did not understand the breadth of the protection included in the new deal:
As a negotiating committee member, let’s talk about the important Consent & Compensation protections for AI in this new contract Major opponents spoke out before even reading the contract and seem to want want an absolute prohibition on the use of AI.
Not only is it unrealistic and impossible to try and hold back the tide when it comes to technology, these new SAG-AFTRA protections actually allow you to surf the wave of AI technology when it comes to the use of your face and likeness.
If a producer wants to PAY ME MY NEGOTIATED RATE to stay home—or better yet to work another job—while they use my AI digital replica in the background of a reshoot By all means, I’ll take the check while I’m w/my family or I’ll double dip and get checks for two projects at once.
These new protections give you fully informed consent and compensation Producers must hire you for any movie or episode in which your “digital replica” will be used Producers must get your Consent and give you a description of how they’ll use your digital replica.
Producers must get your consent AGAIN if they significantly change how they’re going to use your replica Producers have to pay you your negotiated day rate for as many days work as it would’ve taken you to do the scenework done by your digital replica—your replica isn’t cheaper.
Producers still have to hire the required number of background actors and the contract specifically states that a producer can’t use a digital replica instead of the background actor themselves. In short, A DIGITAL REPLICA OF ME CAN NEVER BE IN ANY PROJECT I DIDN’T CHOOSE TO DO.
It’s also worth noting most of the alteration provisions that the contract’s opponents are upset about are virtually the same as what currently exists with dubbing & ADR The major difference being the quality would be better than conventional dubbing Think photoshop & autotune.
TO BE CLEAR We may still have a fight someday against Synthetic Fakes, completely AI generated characters that don’t look like any individual performer BUT As far as we know, NO PERFORMER HAS YET BEEN REPLACED BY AN AI GENERATED SYNTHETIC FAKE.
After 6 months of strikes costing our members, industry, city & state economies roughly $6 billion, the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee made the decision to close this $Billion deal with AI protections that were strongest & most urgently needed right now—
This new contract requires producers to notify SAG-AFTRA any and every time a Synthetic Fake is used Moreover, if any performer or their character is used as part of the prompt to generate an AI Synthetic Fake, producers have to get the consent of that performer.
For example, If a producer tells AI to generate a character from Harry Potter and Frodo Baggins Producers would have to get consent from Daniel Radcliffe and Elijah Wood These requirements make certain we’re ready to fight when Synthetic fakes become a real threat.
But that threat is not here yet And some other things we’ve realized during this strike may push that threat even further off Movies & TV shows NEED REAL ACTORS for promotion. Without SAG-AFTRA members to promote, Box Office suffered and Movies & shows were pushed til next year.
Add the fact that the Actors needed to promote movies & tv shows absolutely hate acting opposite tennis balls, And the realities of the business give us even more security that we can’t/won’t be replaced anytime soon Producers will try of course We’ll be ready when they do.
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