SAG-AFTRA Reveals How Studios Will Handle AI Replicas of Living and Dead Actors

After the longest actor’s strike in Hollywood’s history came to a close this week, SAG-AFTRA released details of its billion-dollar deal with Hollywood studios — revealing protections against the use of artificial intelligence on actors’ performances that will impact the industry for decades.

The SAG-AFTRA national board voted Friday to accept the tentative agreement with 86 percent approval. The deal will next head to the union’s 160,000 members in the coming weeks to ratify the agreement. 

Following the board meeting, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland discussed details of the new contract in a press conference. According to Drescher, the issue of AI was a major dealbreaker between SAG and the AMPTP.

“If we didn’t get that package, then what are we doing? We’re not really able to protect our members in the way that they needed to be protected… If we didn’t get those barricades, what would it be in three years?” she said.

According to the deal, companies must request consent before making digital replicas of actors and must disclose what the replica will be used for. Actors will also receive compensation for the digital replicas.

“We were engaged in a very serious fight with big companies over what was going to happen with respect to the use of generative AI to create what we call synthetic fake performers,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said.

“We have a provision that requires the companies to get the consent of performers whose facial features are used as part of the creation of such a synthetic,” he continued. The rules will also apply to deceased actors. Heirs or beneficiaries must consent first, Crabtree-Ireland previously told Rolling Stone.

There are also guidelines around synthetic fakes, or fake performers who are based on the image and likeness of an actor, which is used to train generative AI. SAG-AFTRA has the right to be notified, Crabtree-Ireland said, and the right to bargain for fair pay.

In the union’s initial announcement of the tentative deal on Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA promised it had secured a contract “of extraordinary scope” valued at more than $1 billion and “unprecedented provisions for consent and compensation that will protect members from the threat of AI.”

That same day, AMPTP released its own statement, saying the tentative agreement gave the “biggest contract-on-contract gains in the history of the union,” and included “extensive consent and compensation protections in the use of artificial intelligence.”

However, just days before, generative AI became the sticking point preventing both parties from being able to strike a deal. Last weekend, film studios presented their “last, best and final” offer to the union, which reviewed and rejected it, stating there were “several essential items on which we still do not have an agreement, including AI.” The Hollywood Reporter later revealed that AMPTP’s proposal would require studios to pay to secure AI scans of Schedule F performers, actors who earn more than the minimum rate for series regulars and feature films. However, the language of the offer would also allow studios to re-use AI scans of dead performers without consent of the actor’s estate or SAG-AFTRA.

Some online referred to the studios’ offer as the “zombie clause.” TV writer and producer David Slack said the “zombie clause” is “obviously reprehensible and grotesque,” adding, “It also makes clear that NO member of SAG-AFTRA is safe from the studios’ greed.”

In July, the AMPTP reportedly wanted to pay background actors a low daily rate to take AI scans of them, opening up a pathway to make all talent “vulnerable to having most of their work replaced by digital replicas,” according to SAG-AFTRA. (In response, the AMPTP said SAG-AFTRA had “mischaracterized” its AI proposal and claimed it had offered protections around digital replicas.) 

As the historic 118-day strike comes to a close — following months of disruption to film and television production that’s stalled the 2024 release calendar, production could resume as soon as the start of the new year.

“We feel that there is a robust and comprehensive set of protections for our members against the implementation of A I in the industry,” said Crabtree-Ireland of the new deal. “It allows the industry to go forward. It does not block AI but it makes sure that performers are protected, the rights of consent are protected, the rights to pay compensation and the rights of employment are protected.”

In October, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) also officially ended its strike after ratifying a three-year deal with AI terms it approved of — agreeing that AI cannot be considered a writer within TV and film projects, and AI-generated material is not considered literary material or assigned material. On the other hand, writers were given the option to choose to use AI if they please, but cannot be forced to use AI software by a company. The deal also stipulated that if anything is written by AI, then the company must notify the writer in advance.