AI: The Unexpected Player in Hollywood’s Labor Strikes, Explained

75

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a contentious issue amidst Hollywood’s labor disputes. Alongside conventional debates over salary structures, benefits, and job security, AI technology has become a curveball in the contract negotiations that have driven actors and writers unions to strike.

The technology has led discussions into uncharted waters, with the rhetoric often being painted as either utopian or dystopian, depending on one’s position. Let’s take a look at what the unions and their employers are arguing for.

WHY IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SO CONTROVERSIAL?

As technology that creates without human creators rises, renowned actors are anxious about losing control over their valuable image rights. Up-and-coming actors fear replacement, while writers are concerned about sharing or even losing credit to machines.

The proposed contracts that sparked both strikes only span three years. Despite the rapid evolution of AI, it’s highly unlikely that it would cause extensive displacement of writers or actors during this period. Nevertheless, both unions and employers understand that any ground conceded in one contract can be difficult to regain in the next.

Already, nascent versions of this technology have infiltrated virtually every aspect of filmmaking. From de-aging actors like Harrison Ford in the latest “Indiana Jones” film or Mark Hamill in “The Mandalorian,” to generating abstracted animations of Samuel L. Jackson and a range of aliens in the opening sequence of “Secret Invasion” on Disney+, to offering recommendations on Netflix.

All parties involved in the strikes recognize that the more widespread use of this technology is inevitable. Hence, all are now seeking to establish legal and creative dominion.

Actor and writer Johnathan McClain suggests that this battle mirrors those over automation in other sectors but also anticipates many more to come as technology advances.

“People often overlook our profession because it’s entertainment,” McClain stated on the picket lines outside Warner Bros. Studios. “But I believe we are somewhat of a canary in a coal mine in terms of this tech conversation. This is a critical moment, and we need to take a firm stance.”

THE ACTORS’ PERSPECTIVE

Discussions about AI between the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents employers, escalated from theoretical groundwork to a public feud when the strike began on July 13.

Outraged actors widely shared a description of the studios’ AI position, released by SAG-AFTRA, which the AMPTP labeled as a deliberate misinterpretation:

“We want to scan a background performer’s image, pay them for half a day’s work, and then use that individual’s likeness for any purpose indefinitely without their consent,” stated the union. “We also want to change principal performers’ dialogue, and even create new scenes, without informed consent. And we want to use someone’s images, likenesses, and performances to train new generative AI systems without consent or compensation.”

In response, the AMPTP stated that its offers included an “AI proposal which protects performers’ digital likenesses, requiring their consent for the creation and use of digital replicas or digital alterations of a performance.”

SAG-AFTRA reiterated their demands, stressing the necessity of safeguarding “human-created work,” which includes changes to an actor’s “voice, likeness, or performance.”

Interestingly, “voice” tops that list. While audiences may still be uncomfortable with the visual avatars of actors like Hamill and Jackson, the technology recreating voices appears to be more advanced.

The voices of the late Anthony Bourdain and the late Andy Warhol have both been resurrected for recent documentaries. Union members who make a living from voiceovers are certainly paying attention.

WRITERS’ CREDIT LINE AT STAKE

Screenwriters’ contract discussions, which collapsed in early May, saw the Writers Guild of America expressing its willingness to permit the use of AI — but only as a tool for their own work.

They might consider shaping narratives with AI assistance. However, they refuse to let it influence the credits crucial to their reputation and income.

The guild is striving to prevent raw, AI-generated storylines or dialogue from being classified as “literary material” — a term used in their contracts for scripts and other story forms produced by a screenwriter. This ensures they wouldn’t be competing with machines for credit — or for an original screenplay Oscar.

The writers also don’t want these storylines or dialogues to be deemed “source material” — their contract term for novels, video games, or other works that writers may adapt into scripts.

The AMPTP stated that writers “want to use this technology as part of their creative process, without changing how credits are determined, which is complicated given AI material can’t be copyrighted.”

The studios also underscored that previous writers’ contracts established that any “corporate or impersonal provider” of literature is not a screenwriter.

“Only a ‘person’ can be considered a writer,” said the AMPTP. “AI-generated material would not be eligible for writing credit.”

While this stance could ease writers’ concerns about sharing credit with AI, it could also lead to no one receiving credit when they “collaborate” with AI.

Current screenwriting contracts and credit attribution are already complex, often requiring guild intervention to clarify. Injecting AI into this equation could exacerbate the complexity.

---

Big Big News journalist Krysta Fauria provided additional reporting from Burbank, California.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Artificial Intelligence in Hollywood

More about Artificial Intelligence in Hollywood

• Artificial Intelligence in the Film Industry
• The Impact of AI on Hollywood
• Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)
• Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP)
• Writers Guild of America (WGA)