It genuinely sounds like something out of an episode of Black Mirror.
AI is one of the two central issues of the just-begun actors’ strike, with the other being proper residual payments from shows and movies shown on streaming services, as things like Netflix and Prime Video didn’t even exist the last time the actors went on strike.
While we’re still in the VERY early days of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) strike, the impact is already being felt, with some of the biggest stars in the world walking out mid-premiere, and loopholes are being revealed that could see Hollywood move huge productions to Ireland, more details are still being revealed about why the negotiations between the actors and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) fell apart.
The AMPTP, the represents major studios and streamers, including Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros. Discovery/HBO, stated that their deal included “a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members.”
However, as reported by The Verge, SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland revealed that proposal was as follows:
“This ‘groundbreaking’ AI proposal that they gave us yesterday, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get one day’s pay, and their companies should own that scan, their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity on any project they want, with no consent and no compensation. So if you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”
And if you’re thinking “Hey, that sounds a lot like the plot of that Black Mirror episode, Joan Is Awful”, that is because it is essentially identical.
Following this proposal, the SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher delivered this incredible speech, marking the beginning of the strike action:
President of SAG-AFTRA Fran Drescher's speech against the AMPTP was fantastic. A historical day. pic.twitter.com/iTzQY7xxtB
— Todd Spence (@Todd_Spence) July 13, 2023
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