Hollywood Actors and Studios Make Deal About AI Technology

Hollywood movie studios and the actors' union have made a new deal about artificial intelligence. The agreement includes rules to protect actors from being replaced by AI without permission. Union leaders approved the deal earlier this month. Now the 160,000 members of SAG-AFTRA are voting on it.

The new agreement comes after a big strike in 2023. Actors stopped working for 118 days because they worried about AI taking their jobs. The strike shut down many movies and TV shows. It cost studios billions of dollars and was the longest actors' strike ever.

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland leads the union's negotiating team. He says studios had a better attitude this time. Both sides worked together much better than before. The 2023 strikes helped improve the relationship between studios and unions.

AI technology has gotten much more advanced in recent years. Actors still worry that studios might use AI to replace them. The new contract doesn't ban AI completely, but it creates new protections. Studios must get permission and pay actors fairly to use their digital copies.

The deal also allows limited use of AI-created characters that aren't based on real people. Studios can only use these in unusual situations. They must prove to the union that these characters add real value to their projects. This makes studios think twice before using AI instead of real actors.