Before appearing on HBO’s White House Plumbers and Fox’s New Girl, Hollywood actress Stevie Nelson had her television show on Nickelodeon. Called Crashletes, the show featured Stevie and her cohosts reacting to viral videos of people failing at sports, with a lively audience of kids adding to the fun. The show enjoyed a successful run spanning three seasons and concluded at the end of 2020, leaving behind a rich collection of sixty episodes.
Reflecting on her past work, Stevie Nelson expresses concerns about the potential future misuse of her footage by studios. She worries that her body of work could be utilized to train artificial intelligence (AI) to create a digital version of herself, perpetually hosting shows and saying things she never did. Based on her previous on-screen appearances, such a situation would be indistinguishable from the honest Stevie Nelson.
Nelson claimed, “There’s enough footage of me that they could technically have me host other shows for the rest of my life without ever having done it, and I’m sure I would not be fairly compensated for it. The idea of not a real person hosting shows is scary. The magic of acting and hosting is its impromptu nature. I can’t imagine how soulless it would be to replace it with AI.”
Hollywood Unites: Unprecedented Double Strike Demands Regulation on AI Usage
In an unprecedented move, 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) have joined forces with the 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) in a nationwide strike to demand regulation on the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) in the entertainment industry. This marks the first double strike since 1960, when Ronald Reagan served as SAG’s president.
Outside Netflix’s corporate office in Los Angeles, the heart of Hollywood, union members gathered on the picket line for the second day of the strike. Morale was high as hundreds of performers and writers marched together, supported by music sampling news coverage of the strike and provided with beverages, snacks, and sunscreen to endure the scorching temperatures exceeding 90 degrees.
Nelson, a SAG-AFTRA member, shared her concerns about the potential indefinite use of AI avatars hosting television shows, envisioning a digital purgatory for performers. While this idea may seem far-fetched, it underscores the gravity of the ongoing strike, which revolves around regulating AI usage in the entertainment industry.
SAG-AFTRA’s primary focus in their negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) for a new three-year TV/theatrical contract is to protect performers like Nelson from potential exploitation by AI. The union proposes provisions that mandate studios to seek informed consent from performers before using their likenesses and ensure fair compensation. Additionally, they advocate for guidelines on using generative AI for training purposes.
However, the AMPTP has rejected these proposals, deeming them unprecedented. SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, expressed dissatisfaction with the studios’ counteroffer, labelling it as unacceptable.
Regulating AI’s Impact on Creative Contributions
The strike has brought to light the urgent need for the regulation of AI in the entertainment industry, with writers also seeking to address the issue in their negotiations with the studios. While both parties remain at a standstill, the actors and writers relentlessly demand to protect their rights and creative contributions in an increasingly AI-driven landscape.
The entertainment industry is witnessing a contentious showdown as Hollywood actors, represented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, lock horns with significant studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Several critical issues have become points of disagreement between the two parties at the heart of the dispute.
Wages are a primary concern in these negotiations. SAG-AFTRA has demanded an 11 per cent raise in the contract’s first year to compensate for years of inflation. However, the actors perceived the studios’ counteroffer of a 5 per cent yearly increase as a pay cut. Additionally, there is a pressing need to address the significant shortfall in the health and pension fund. SAG-AFTRA has proposed raising the contribution caps by an amount equal to inflation, which hasn’t seen an increase since the 1980 actors’ strike. In contrast, the AMPTP’s response has been a much smaller $5,000 increase.
The advent of the pandemic brought about a shift in audition practices, with self-taping becoming the norm. This change has resulted in substantial cost savings for producers, but SAG-AFTRA aims to establish regulations for this practice. The studios’ stance on this matter has been to insist that any protections offered would be exempt from grievance and arbitration, effectively rendering them toothless in the eyes of the actors.
Residuals Dispute of Hollywood: Struggles and Implications for the Entertainment Industry
Another major issue lies in residuals – the payments that have traditionally supported performers during lean periods. Residuals were first secured through the 1960 actors’ and writers’ strike and have been crucial for actors’ income, mainly from cable and broadcast reruns. However, with the rise of streaming platforms that do not follow the traditional licensing and syndication models, residuals have been affected significantly.
The case of Comer, who appeared on multiple popular shows, illustrates the disparity in residuals. For her role in an Emmy-winning show on Hulu, she received around half of what she would have earned had the show aired on network television. The discrepancy in residuals has raised concerns among actors and prompted SAG-AFTRA to propose a new residual system. Their proposal suggests tying residuals to 2 per cent of subscriber revenue. However, calculating the subscribers a project attracts on a streaming platform has become challenging, as studios are reluctant to share their data with the unions. In response, SAG-AFTRA suggested using a third-party success metric from Parrot Analytics to estimate streamer data, but the AMPTP raised doubts about the validity of this approach.
Hollywood remains at a standstill as negotiations continue, with both parties adamant in their positions. The future of the entertainment industry’s labour relations hangs in the balance, and the resolution of these contentious issues will undoubtedly shape the entertainment business landscape for years to come.
