- The Screen Actors Guild and the Federation of Television and Radio Artists of America will begin contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Wednesday.
- Hollywood talent wants to create guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence in future TV and film productions.
- Hollywood is already facing the problem of 11,500 screenwriters refusing work, which has led to the closure of dozens of production and writer rooms.
People picket outside Fox Studios on the first day of the Hollywood Writers’ Strike in Los Angeles on May 2, 2023.
David Mcnew | Getty Images
As Hollywood gears up for a new labor struggle, concerns about artificial intelligence are once again at the forefront.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers must either seal deals with the Screen Actors Guild and the Federation of Television and Radio Artists of America for three weeks and two days starting Wednesday, or watch a mob of picketers appear outside the studio gates. There is
Hollywood talent wants to create guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence in future TV and film productions.
A recent series of deepfake trailers featuring Wes Anderson-esque versions of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings characters from Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, and Timothée Chalamet will be released in film and television. further exacerbated concerns that the actor would be replaced. Show any program without proper authorization or payment.
In an emailed statement, Duncan Crabtree Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s National Secretary and Chief Negotiator, told CNBC, “Certain AI misuse has actually reduced the value of some of our members’ performances. “It could go up or down, but the concerns go far beyond that.”
“Our members ask what kind of projects they are working on, what kind of conversations they have, what philosophies the characters are advocating, what kind of things they are doing with their bodies. You have a right to know if the action is being imposed,” he said. “Our members are humans, not puppets. Using AI technology to force them to do or say something without their informed consent is a violation.”
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AI is a major concern for all Hollywood guilds, who find their jobs particularly vulnerable to this new technology. On the other hand, AMPTP said AI technology “raises important creative and legal difficulties for all.”
The Director’s Guild of America struck a preliminary agreement last weekend with producers to ensure first-year pay hikes start at 5%, stream surpluses and artificial intelligence can’t replace members’ jobs. I was able to . The DGA board unanimously approved the agreement, opening the way for members to vote on the agreement.
Both the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA are seeking protections against AI use in negotiations, in addition to increased compensation for streaming content.
The SAG-AFTRA acknowledges that AI technology may benefit the industry, but the use of AI to replicate actors or create new performances is subject to the actors’ consent and payment. We want to ensure that it is done in Similar rules have already been put in place for the Guild when it comes to capturing computer-generated images.
“Generative AI tools should be deployed to assist and enhance humans, not replace them,” said Crabtree Ireland. “Our members fundamentally want to ensure a human-centric approach to AI adoption in industries where AI serves humans, not the other way around.”
Already, some performers, such as James Earl Jones, have agreed to clone their voices for use after their death. The 92-year-old Jones, best known for voicing Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, was considering stepping down from the role. Jones was paid compensation and the technology was used to bring Vader’s iconic voice to Disney Plus’ Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Different stakeholders have different levels of comfort with how AI is used. As such, SAG-AFTRA seeks to advocate informed consent when consulting with his AMPTP. Fundamentally, the Guild wants to ensure that if an actor agrees to use their image or voice in a particular project, it will only be used for its intended purpose and that the actor will be properly compensated. I’m here.
The concern is that studios will use AI to feed existing material and pump out new content, like how the Anderson parody was created, in an attempt to cut costs and increase revenue. It means there is a possibility.
Jaap Ariens | Null Photo | Getty Images
The past year has seen an explosion in the use and development of generative AI, especially since the fall of 2022 when OpenAI released its AI chatbot ChatGPT.
A few months later, it reached 100 million monthly active users, setting a record for the fastest growing app of all time. Overall, the growth of this sector has generated billions of dollars in deals. And this phenomenon wasn’t limited to text-based generative AI. Models for generating images and videos also spread rapidly. Five weeks after OpenAI released its image generation model DALL-E 2, over 3 million people reportedly used it to generate over 4 million images daily.
Similar image generation tools such as Stable Diffusion and Midjourney quickly gained momentum, and tech giants such as Meta, Google, and Amazon, which has its own movie studio, have released AI models for generating video content.
“The concerns of AI are in some ways similar to those about the ethical use of CGI, but in addition to the modest technical requirements to achieve surprisingly reliable results, the use of generative AI requires a great deal of flexibility. It’s more widespread because it’s more flexible,” he said. Crabtree for SAG-AFTRA – Ireland. “Combining these factors makes generative AI a smarter, more dangerous technological development that deserves our attention and effort.”
Hollywood’s concerns about AI aren’t going away any time soon, either. On Monday, SAG-AFTRA member states gave negotiators the power to approve a strike if negotiations stalled. If an actor leaves the negotiating table without an agreement, 160,000 performers will step off a film or television set, leading to a mass production halt.
The industry is already battling 11,500 writers who refuse to work, leading to the closure of dozens of studios and writers’ offices.
Netflix has already postponed the start of production on the fifth and final season of ‘Stranger Things’, and Warner Bros. It closed its studios and closed Disney and Marvel’s production companies. Production on Thunderbolt and Blade was put on hold.
Some productions were able to continue after the writers’ strike because the scripts had already been completed. But if SAG-AFTRA were to go into effect, these shows and movies would immediately stop filming, intensifying the debate over AI in movies.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is a member of the Alliance of Film and Television Producers.
