🎧 Fran Drescher Q&A: How AI Brought Hollywood CEOs to the Brink

SAG-AFTRA's president, and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, reveal what happened in the room with the 'Gang of Four', and why Apple and Amazon eventually joined: 'We're not peons. We're partners'

VICTORIOUS SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland at the guild’s offices. (credit: Elaine Low)

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“None of the workers in this industry are going to let themselves be dictated to anymore by big companies,” says SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, who sat down, along with chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, with Elaine Low on Nov. 10, in the wake of a new contract with the AMPTP. They detail the drama around AI that took talks to the “last minute, literally the last day.” Drescher says the studios first said of proposed AI guardrails, “You'll have to trust us, but we’re not going to put it in writing… come on, do I look like I was born yesterday?’” And while never naming her, they spare no words for AMPTP president and negotiator Carol Lombardini: “I never want to go back to… a middleman. Now I want to talk to your boss.”

Transcript here.

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