The use of AI and 3D scanning of actors, covered by VentureBeat in a deep dive report over the summer, had both been sticking points.
After 118 days, the longest strike by actors in the history of Hollywood has ended with a new deal valued at $1 billion that includes new protections against AI, according to the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the union representing more than 160,000 actors.
In a message posted on its website and X account, SAG-AFTRA stated that its negotiators had voted unanimously in favor of ending the strike tonight at 12:01 am November 9 (presumably Pacific time), and that it had reached a long-sought agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade group representing major Hollywood studios and production companies such as Disney, Universal, Warner Bros. Discovery, and others.
According to SAG-AFTRA, the deal includes “unprecedented provisions for consent and compensation that will protect members from the threat of AI.” Why was AI such an issue?
The use of AI and 3D scanning of actors, covered by VentureBeat in a deep dive report over the summer, had both been sticking points in the actors’ negotiations.
Though 3D scanning of actors has around since the 1980s in film to produce special effects, the practice has grown in prominence as it has become more accessible and affordable with multiple tech vendors offering it, to the point that background actors told NPR that they were being scanned for only a day’s worth of work and their likeness kept by studios to use perpetually into the future.
With the advent of commercial AI and particularly generative AI in recent years, actors feared that their likenesses could be puppeted by studios for movies beyond what they had signed onto, depriving them of income.
