Striking actors on the picket lines are demanding studios ask for consent and compensate them fairly when it comes to digital replicas.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland is the chief negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union supporting the strike. During a press conference last week, he said actors faced “an existential threat to their livelihoods, with the rise of generative AI technology.”
It all sounds a little bit like the Black Mirror’s “Joan is Awful” episode, but actor Erik Passoja told LAist he has a real-life cautionary tale from his experience working in the video game industry.
Passoja said he did motion capture work back in 2014 for the video game Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. He said he got a daily rate to play a Belgian geneticist, one of the bad guy’s henchmen.
But after the game was released, Passoja got an unexpected call from a friend. “He said ‘Hey Erik, my son just shot you!,’” Passoja recalled.
Turns out Passoja’s digital likeness was also used in a multiplayer version of the game, something he said he didn’t consent to.
“I found out that someone had plastered my face on a playable character, so now you can shoot me, blow me up, burn me, throw me off a cliff,” Passoja said.
Passoja said he never saw a penny of residuals, which actors don’t typically receive on video games.
The SAG-AFTRA strike order does not include work under its Interactive Media Agreement, which covers video game work.
But Passoja said he’s concerned Hollywood studios could do the same thing.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said in a statement that its contract offer includes a “groundbreaking” requirement to ask for a performer’s consent before using a digital replica.
But according to Crabtree-Ireland, the AMPTP had proposed “that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness and to be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation.”
“If you think that’s a ‘groundbreaking’ proposal, I suggest you think again,” Crabtree-Ireland added.
“If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble. We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said at the press conference announcing the strike.
For his part, Passoja said he believes in the power of AI and technology if it’s used ethically, but he feels exploited by the situation, especially when you consider that Call of Duty is a multi-billion dollar franchise. Passoja said he's running to be a SAG-AFTRA local union delegate, in part because of this very issue.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) have been negotiating for new contracts with Hollywood's studios, collectively known as the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The WGA went on strike May 2. It is the first WGA strike in 15 years; the last work stoppage began in November 2007 and lasted 100 days.
SAG-AFTRA went on strike July 13. It marked the first time Hollywood performers and writers have simultaneously walked off the job since 1960.
Call of Duty developer Activision did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Some things to note: This is the first SAG strike since 1980. The 1960 strike, which took place while the WGA was also striking, was led by Ronald Reagan, then the president of SAG. Current events:
Minimum earnings: SAG is asking for an 11% general wage increase to reflect inflation. The AMPTP is countering with 5%.
Share of revenue: Actors feel they haven’t received their fair share of revenue from hit streaming shows.
Artificial intelligence: There is deep concern about how artificial intelligence will be used, with particular anxiety about the use of a performer’s image and likeness. The union wants to prevent studios from training AI programs on actors’ work without permission, and for actors to consent and be paid if AI is used to replicate them. The AMPTP offered what it called a "groundbreaking" proposal that it said “protects performers’ digital likenesses." The union rejected this.
Self-taped auditions: Since the pandemic, self-produced audition tapes have become the norm — meaning actors light and film themselves. It’s labor intensive, with no pay, and widens an already competitive pool of performers. The union says it understands self-taped auditions can be useful, but wants to put restrictions around them.
