The Black Mirror plot about AI that worries stars
Hollywood actors are striking for the first time in 43 years, bringing the American film and TV industry to a halt, partly due to concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI).
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) failed to reach an agreement in the United States for better protections against AI for its members and warned that "artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to creative professions" as it prepared to stand firm on the issue.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the chief negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, criticized producers for their proposals regarding AI. He said studios had requested the ability to scan the faces of background artists for the payment of one day’s work and then own and use their likeness "for the rest of eternity, in any project they want, without any consent and no compensation."
If that sounds like the plot of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror episode, that's because it is. U.S. media quickly pointed out that the recent series 6 episode "Joan Is Awful" features Hollywood star Salma Hayek discovering her AI likeness can be used by a production company without her knowledge.
it's not just SAG-AFTRA that is worried about so-called "performance cloning." Liam Budd of the UK acting union Equity said, "We’re seeing this technology used in various areas like automated audiobooks, synthesized voiceover work, digital avatars for corporate videos, and deepfakes in movies."
Mr. Budd noted that there was "fear circulating" among Equity members, and the union was trying to educate them on understanding their rights in this rapidly evolving landscape.
Filmmaker and writer Justine Bateman, speaking to the BBC’s Tech Life earlier this year, stated that she did not believe the entertainment industry needed AI at all. "Technology should solve a problem, and there’s no problem that those using AI are solving. We don’t have a lack of writers, we don’t have a lack of actors, we don’t have a lack of filmmakers—so we don’t need AI," she said. "The problem it solves is for companies that feel they don’t have wide enough profit margins—because if you can eliminate the costs of having to pay everyone, you can appease Wall Street and have higher profit reports."
"If AI use proliferates, the entertainment industry will crater the entire structure of this business," she warned.
Some argue that AI will never capture the human touch that makes a film script great, but there are valid concerns that it will put writers out of work. The Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) has several issues with AI, including:
- AI developers using writers' work without their consent and infringing on their copyright.
- AI tools not properly identifying where AI has been used to create content.
- Increased AI use leading to fewer job opportunities for writers.
- AI suppressing writers' pay.
- AI diluting the contributions made by the creative sector to the UK economy and national identity.
The WGGB has made several recommendations to protect writers, including requiring AI developers to obtain express permission before using writers' work and being transparent about the data used to train their tools.
WGGB deputy general secretary Lesley Gannon said, "As with any new technology, we need to weigh the risks against the benefits and ensure that the pace of development does not outstrip or undermine the protections that writers and the broader creative workforce rely on to earn a living."
"Legislation is clearly needed to protect workers' rights and safeguard audiences from fraud and misinformation," she added.
The rapid growth of AI over the past year has complicated the concept of ownership. When someone inputs their likeness into an AI-generated portrait application such as DrawAnyone, DALL-E, or even Snapchat, the resulting images are now in the public domain and free for anyone to use. The new image is not protected by copyright law.
Additional coverage by Tom Gerken as well as Tom Singleton.