Filmmakers have put monsters on screen for more than a century. In 2023, the real bogeyman looks just like us. Hollywood studios and performers have debated the use of artificial intelligence in film and television.
Failure to agree on terms around AI was one reason why the SAG-AFTRA union representing actors and media professionals join the writers guild in the first simultaneous strike in 63 years.
The two sides have negotiate over issues ranging from using images and performances as training data for AI systems to digitally altering performances in the editing room, actors are worried entirely AI-generated actors, or “metahumans,” will steal their roles.
One issue is creating synthetic performers from an amalgamation of actors’ images.
Studio sources said this has not happen yet, though they are aiming to reserve that right as part of the contract talks.
SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, said AI poses an “existential crisis” for actors who worry their past, present and future work will be used to generate “synthetic performers who can take their place.”
Crabtree-Ireland said the union is not seeking an outright ban on AI, but rather that companies consult with it and get approval before casting a synthetic performer in place of an actor.
The major film and television producers say they have address the union’s concerns on the issue in their latest proposal, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The union has not respond to their proposal, these studio sources say.
The studios, eager to preserve creative options, agreed to provide SAG with notice if they plan to use such a synthetic performer to replace a human actor who otherwise would have been hire for the role, and give the union the chance to negotiate, according to sources familiar with the producers’ position.
Another sticking point in the negotiations is the creation of digital replicas of background performers.
The major studios, represent by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said they would obtain an actor’s permission to use their digital replica in any motion picture outside the production for which the performer was hire, according to the sources familiar with the producers’ proposal.
The producers said they would negotiate with actors on payment when the digital duplicate is use and stipulate that the virtual version of the actor could not stand in for the minimum number of background actors require as part of the SAG agreement.
SAG says the studios have agreed to obtain consent at the time of initial employment, which it argues is contrary to the idea of additional compensation.
The studios also are looking to continue the longstanding practice of 3D body scans to capture an actor’s likeness, in this case to create AI-generated digital replicas.
Such images would be use in post-production, to accurately replace an actor’s face or create an on-screen double, said a person familiar with the mechanics of film production.
The producers have promise to obtain a performer’s consent, and bargain separately for subsequent uses of an actor’s doppelganger, sources say.
The issue for the union is the desire to retain rights to the digital replicas for future works, effectively taking ownership of the virtual persona.
Similarly, the studios want the right to digitally alter a performance post-production, in a way that is consistent with the character, the script and the director’s vision.
This ability to substitute a word or two of dialogue, or make a quick digital wardrobe change, could save hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs to re-shoot a scene, said one of the studio sources.
The producers offer to seek a performer’s consent for any changes beyond typical alterations done post-production, sources say.
SAG interprets this as AI overreach, and wants permission sought before any changes to an actor’s image, likeness or voice.
