LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥 Artificial intelligence has surged to the forefront of Hollywood鈥檚 labor fights. Standing alongside more traditional disputes over pay models, benefits and job protections, AI technology is the wild card in the contract breakdowns that have led actors and writers unions to go on strike.
The technology has pushed negotiations into unknown territory, and the language used can sound utopian or dystopian depending on the side of the table. Here鈥檚 a look at what the unions and their employers each say they want.
WHY IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SUCH A HOT-BUTTON ISSUE?
As the technology to create without creators emerges, star actors fear they will lose control of their lucrative likenesses. Unknown actors fear they鈥檒l be replaced altogether. Writers fear they鈥檒l have to share credit or lose credit to machines.
The proposed contracts that led to both strikes last only three years. Even at the seeming breakneck pace at which AI is moving, it's very unlikely there would be any widespread displacement of writers or actors in that time. But unions and employers know that ground given on an issue in one contract can be hard to reclaim in the next.
Emerging versions of the tech have already filtered into nearly , used to de-age actors like or Mark Hamill in 鈥淭he Mandalorian," to generate the abstracted animated images of and a swirl of several aliens in the intro to 鈥淪ecret Invasion鈥 on Disney+, and to give recommendations on Netflix.
All sides in the strikes acknowledge that use of the technology even more broadly is inevitable. That's why all are looking now to establish legal and creative control.
Actor and writer Johnathan McClain said the battle echoes fights over automation across other industries, but foretells many more to come as tech becomes better.
鈥淚t鈥檚 easy to marginalize what we do because it鈥檚 entertainment鈥 McClain said on the picket lines outside Warner Bros. Studios. 鈥淎nd I get it. But I feel on some level we are, as far as this tech conversation is concerned, a little bit of a canary in a coal mine. This is an important moment and we've got to really make a decisive stand.鈥
THE ACTORS' TAKE
AI discussions between the Screen Actors Guild鈥揂merican Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents employers, went from a theoretical framework to a bitter battle that spilled into the public when the strike broke out July 13.
In a description widely shared by on social media, SAG-AFTRA released this characterization of the studios鈥 AI position, which the AMPTP called a deliberate distortion:
鈥淲e want to be able to scan a background performer鈥檚 image, pay them for a half a day鈥檚 labor, and then use an individual鈥檚 likeness for any purpose forever without their consent," the union said. "We also want to be able to make changes to principal performers鈥 dialogue, and even create new scenes, without informed consent. And we want to be able to use someone鈥檚 images, likenesses, and performances to train new generative AI systems without consent or compensation."
The AMPTP said in a statement in response that its offers included an 鈥淎I proposal which protects performers鈥 digital likenesses, including a requirement for performers' consent for the creation and use of digital replicas or for digital alterations of a performance.鈥
SAG-AFTRA used similar language in describing what they wanted, emphasizing the need to protect 鈥渉uman-created work鈥 including alterations to the 鈥渧oice, likeness or performance鈥 of an actor.
It may be fitting that "voice" comes first on that list. While many viewers still cringe at the visual avatars of actors like Hamill and Jackson, feels further along.
The voices of the late and the late Andy Warhol have both been recreated for recent documentaries.
Union members who make a living doing voiceovers have taken note.
WRITERS WANT THEIR LINE OF CREDIT
In screenwriters' contract talks, which broke down in early May, the Writers Guild of America said it would allow for the use of AI 鈥 but only insofar as it was a tool for them to use in their own work.
They would be willing, potentially, to shape stories with help from AI software. But they do not want it to affect the credits that are essential to their prestige and pay.
The guild wants to prevent raw, AI-generated storylines or dialogue from being regarded as 鈥渓iterary material鈥 鈥 a term in their contracts for scripts and other story forms a screenwriter produces. This means they wouldn鈥檛 be competing with computers for credit 鈥 or for an original screenplay Oscar.
The writers also don鈥檛 want those storylines or dialogue to be considered 鈥渟ource material鈥 鈥 their contractual language for the novels, video games or other works that writers may develop into scripts.
The AMPTP said in a document outlining its position that writers 鈥渨ant to be able to use this technology as part of their creative process, without changing how credits are determined, which is complicated given AI material can鈥檛 be copyrighted.鈥
The studios also emphasized that previous writers鈥 contracts established that any 鈥渃orporate or impersonal purveyor鈥 of literary is not a screenwriter.
鈥淥nly a 鈥榩erson鈥 can be considered a writer,鈥 the AMPTP said. 鈥淎I-generated material would not be eligible for writing credit.鈥
While this position could assuage writers鈥 worries about sharing credit with AI, it could also lead to no one getting credit when they 鈥渃ollaborate鈥 with AI.
Modern screenwriting contracts, and who gets what credit, are already a bramble that the guild often has to step in and sort out. Detailed legal language is pulled out to determine whose name is preceded by 鈥渨ritten by," whose name comes before 鈥渟tory by鈥 or whose name follows 鈥渇rom characters created by.鈥
Putting artificial intelligence into the mix threatens to turn each of those terms into an even stickier thicket.
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Associated Press journalist Krysta Fauria contributed from Burbank, California.
