Why are actors so worried about AI?

Hollywood actors went on strike for the first time in 43 years, and concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) brought the US film and television business to a halt.

The strike comes after the Screen Actors Guild, the American actors’ union, failed to reach an agreement on stronger protections for AI rights.

“Artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to creative professions,” the union warned.

So why is there so much concern about a technology-driven future?

There are already examples of narration artists being replaced by AI-generated works, and the technology is already being used in movies, for example in synthetic voices and visual effects such as deepfakes and de-aging.

Liam Budd, head of audio and new media industry for agency Equity, said he was most concerned about “performance clones,” where AI is used to create performances using the images and voices of actors. Stated.

“We’re seeing this technology used in a variety of things, including automated audiobooks, synthetic voice-over productions, digital avatars in corporate videos, or even deepfake roles used in films. I will,” he said.

Budd said “fear” was prevalent among equity union members and unions were trying to educate members to understand their rights in this rapidly evolving world.

Filmmaker and author Justin Bateman appeared on the BBC’s Tech Life earlier this year and said he doesn’t think the entertainment industry needs AI at all.

“Technology should solve problems, there are no problems for people using AI to solve. We don’t need AI,” she said.

“The problem it solves is for companies that feel they don’t have enough profit margins. If you can get rid of the overhead that everyone has to pay, you can also appease Wall Street and get bigger earnings reports. Because you can.

“The explosion in the use of AI will disrupt the fabric of the entire entertainment industry.”

Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before ChatGPT or Bard come up with a groundbreaking screenplay or turn an idea into a blockbuster screenplay.

While some say AI will always lack the humanity that makes movie scripts great, there is also a legitimate concern that AI will put screenwriters out of work.

The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) – the trade union representing British TV, film, play, book and video game writers – has several concerns:

WGGB ensures that AI developers only use the author’s work if they have been given explicit permission, that AI developers are transparent about what data is used to train their tools, etc. , makes some recommendations to protect writers.

WGGB Deputy General Secretary Leslie Gannon said, “Like any new technology, we weigh the risks and benefits, and the speed of development is the protection that writers and the broader creative workforce depend on for a living.” We need not to exceed or impede it,” he said. .

“Regulation is clearly needed to protect workers’ rights and protect viewers from fraud and misinformation.”

The rapid development of AI over the past year has complicated the concept of ownership.

When someone enters their likeness into an AI-generated portrait app like DrawAnyone, DALL-E, or even Snapchat, the resulting image is public domain and free for anyone to use.

New images are not copyright protected.

Dr Mathilde Pavis, a lawyer who specializes in digital cloning technology, told the BBC that UK copyright law needs to change.

“It’s strange to me that your face and voice are less protected than your car, laptop, phone, house and books, but that’s the state of the law today.

“That’s because we never thought we would be so vulnerable in terms of being reused and imitated in AI technology,” she said.

Additional reporting by Tom Gerken and Tom Singleton.