🎧 Actors and Their Digital Replicas: Hollywood’s Deal Explained
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🎧 Actors and Their Digital Replicas: Hollywood’s Deal Explained
'Picard' star Michelle Hurd and actor Kevin E. West, in the room when SAG-AFTRA cut its deal, break down what the everyday performer should know about protections
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Hollywood’s dystopian-sounding future is here, with AI the overriding issue for actors as they negotiated their new deal with the studios. Today, two actors on that SAG negotiating committee, Picard’s Michelle Hurd and actor Kevin E. West, walk host Elaine Low through new guardrails around “synthetic” performances, and how an actor can still get paid even when their replica is the one at work. The pair also unpack the new streaming residual “fund”, new intimacy coordinator rules, and what hair and makeup provisions mean for performers of color. As for criticism of the deal by some as it goes to a vote? “Everybody take a deep breath.”
Transcript here.
Ms. Hurd starts off complaining about the emotional responses from some union members using nothing but emotionally charged language and logical fallacies such as appeals to authority ("we have highly paid lawyers"). In addition, her assertion that getting language about AI into the contract means that the contract should be ratified makes no sense. Finally, stating that storing an actor's scan is too expensive and makes no business sense for the studios ignores a fundamental rule in tech: everything gets cheaper over time.
if being on Star Trek makes one an expert imagine how expert I am since I actually have dealt with real AI for years now. This is a horrible deal for actors and will destroy Hollywood.