US actors’ union Sag-Aftra was engaged in a “very serious fight” with Hollywood studios over protections against the threat of artificial intelligence “up until the very end” of its 118-day walkout.
The long-running strike ended on Thursday with 86 per cent of the union’s national board voting on Friday to approve a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers (AMPTP).
“We hold in our hands a record-breaking contract,” Sag-Aftra president Fran Drescher told a press conference in Los Angeles.
The total package is worth more than $1 billion and includes “informed consent and fair compensation” for the creation and use of digital replicas of Sag-Aftra members – which Ms Drescher described as a “deal-breaker”.
“Up until the very end we were engaged in a very serious fight with these companies over what was going to happen in respect to the use of generative AI to create what we call synthetic fake performers,” said national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
The deal over artificial intelligence (AI) specifies compensation has to equate to the amount of work that would have been done by the actor, while companies have to get the consent of performers to use their facial features as part of the creation of any synthetic.
Mr Crabtree-Ireland, who described the deal over AI as “robust and comprehensive”, said: “That was the piece that ultimately came together on the very last day, day 118 of the strike.
“It allows the industry to go forward, it does not block AI, but it makes sure that performers are protected, their rights to consent are protected, their right to compensation and the rights to employment are protected.”
The package also includes an 11 per cent wage increase for background actors and 7 per cent general wage increase, both effective immediately, which “breaks the so-called industry pattern”, Mr Crabtree-Ireland said.
He said the deal includes “new and very meaningful protections” for the self-tape audition process, for the first time a requirement to engage with intimacy co-ordinators for scenes of nudity or simulated sex and double pay for “singers who dance and dancers who sing”.
The ratification vote for members begins on Tuesday with ballots cast during a 21-day timeframe, the press conference was told.
Ms Drescher and Mr Crabtree-Ireland were joined at the press conference by members of the TV and theatrical negotiating committee who were involved in achieving the deal.
The strike began on July 14th with disputes over pay and the threat of artificial intelligence at the forefront of concerns, causing major disruption to Hollywood productions.
It came at the same time as the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, which was resolved in September as the union agreed to a deal with studio bosses after 146 days on the picket line.
