Hollywood studios demand unlimited AI rights to dead people

That the use of artificial intelligence has been a key sticking point in negotiations between striking actors and the big studios has been widely reported. But The Hollywood Reporter has new details showing how greedy and disrespectful the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the big studios and streamers, is being with its demands.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is seeking to secure AI scans for Schedule F performers — guild members who earn more than the minimum for series regulars ($32,000 per TV episode) and feature films ($60,000). The companies’ suggested clause would require studios and streamers to pay to scan the likeness of Schedule F performers. SAG-AFTRA is seeking to attach a compensation for the re-use of AI scans as AMPTP member companies would also need to secure consent from the performer. The language currently in the AMPTP’s offer would see the studios and streamers secure the right to use scans of deceased performers without the consent of their estate or SAG-AFTRA.

They want to be able to use AI versions of dead people without consent. That is some ghoulish stuff—and it shows the fundamental contempt the studios have for actors.

“This is one of the biggest reasons SAG did not accept the ‘last, best and final’ offer from the AMPTP. We could not allow that language to stand,” an unnamed union-side source told The Hollywood Reporter. “This is massive. Every A-, B-, C-, D- and E-lister — all the higher-paid performers — who think this is a minimum wage strike, they must know they are in this fight. They have to realize that this is about protecting them. This is their strike now when they realize what’s on the line. The people who launched the campaign to take a deal — they’d be f—ked if we took this deal with that in there.”

This demand shows how existential the SAG-AFTRA strike is for actors: The studios and streamers are trying to set up a future in which they can endlessly recycle the most beloved actors of the past, reducing the need to hire living ones. It’s also a future in which any actor whose likeness becomes usable via AI would have no control over how it was used after their death. And it should go without saying that this would be a wretched, soulless future for audiences as well.

“There are several essential items on which we still do not have an agreement, including AI,” the union said in a statement on Monday.