Yesterday, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers tried to get ahead of negative publicity by releasing a statement about their use of AI to create digital likenesses of actors. AMPTP’s statement called their proposal “groundbreaking,” claiming that it “protects actors’ digital likenesses.” It’s not clear what the proposal protects actors’ likenesses from, exactly, since the proposal would functionally give studios the right to replace those actors with digital copies. Now, more and more actors are coming forward with stories of how it’s already happened to them.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief negotiator and national executive director for SAG-AFTRA, called out the proposal at SAG’s press conference yesterday afternoon. “[AMPTP] 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 be able to use it for the rest of eternity on any project they want with no consent and no compensation,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “So if you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”
At first, many pointed out that AMPTP’s proposal is literally the plot of the Black Mirror episode “Joan is Awful.” However, it quickly became apparent that paying actors for one day of work and then using their likeness forever isn’t science fiction. Stories quickly started to emerge of background actors—who typically earn $100-$200 a day—already being required to sign away their likenesses in order to get work.
Actor Felicia Day revealed that she personally knows background actors whose likenesses have been scanned to create digital copies.
Production assistant and video editor Wyatt Dunkin shared that he was personally put in charge of making sure background actors were scanned.
Actor Dominic Burgess confirmed that the scans are being used to digitally place actors in additional scenes without paying them.
Screenwriter Nicole Demerse shared a story of a friend who was paid $100 to appear in a Marvel project, and was required to sign her image away to Marvel so that the studio could use it “in perpetuity across the Universe.”
These stories show that the threat of AI to the livelihoods of actors—not to mention artists, writers, and other workers in creative fields—isn’t just hypothetical. It’s happening now, and it needs to stop.
(featured image: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
