“Artificial intelligence affects all of us,” says the actors’ union’s chief negotiator

SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, assured that his union’s dispute against the major studios over, among other things, the use of artificial intelligence, It’s a fight that “hits everything” and? “Society must wake up”. “It’s all right now. Society must wake up. It affects everyone. This (AI) is not just advancing, there are very powerful people behind it who are working to make it grow and continue to make money,” said the director of the national executive board of the American Interpreters Collective this Friday during the second day of Comic-Con 2023.

Although union guidelines prohibit its 160,000 members from dispersing at public events during the strike that began last Thursday, Crabtree-Ireland decided to take part in a panel called Artificial Intelligence in Entertainment: An Artist’s Perspective.

The theme of the event organized by the National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA) is one of the main stumbling blocks separating SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild (WGA) from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers when signing a new contract for the next three years.

A SAG-AFTRA representative argued that for negotiations to succeed, entertainment companies must offer “clear, detailed and fair” consent protocols stating whether they will recreate their voices or performances through digital replicas. “Voice actors are the first to suffer the consequences of AI. We need rules that protect the rights of their creations,” he said.

Crabtree-Ireland was joined by NAVA president and co-founder Tim Friedlander, as well as voice artist Zeke Alton, among others.

Sam Alton, who is also a member of SAG-AFTRA, clarified that they are not “against artificial intelligence”, but against the use of technology for “some rich people to steal other people’s work without any consent”.

So SAG-AFTRA and NAVA agreed to publicly request the establishment regulations that limit embezzlement film studios and media platforms streaming synchronization, sound sources or voices turned off for movies, series or video games.

“We are working to ensure that this problem has a global solution. It harms all sectors involved and, with the relocation of production processes, it must be controlled in America, Europe or Africa, wherever,” Friedlander claims.

It started on Thursday last week first simultaneous impact SAG-AFTRA and the WGA in 63 years, which has kept the US entertainment industry paralyzed by not reaching agreements with major media conglomerates on issues like artificial intelligence or residual rights, the economic compensation they receive every time their works are replayed via “streaming”.