Voting began today on an agreement reached between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and members of the recording industry that limits record labels from using artificial intelligence with actors’ voices. .
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s executive director and chief negotiator, said that if companies were going to use any kind of AI tool for digital voice reproduction, they would have to get the artist’s written consent to do so. Decrypt. “Not only does it have to be protected, but it has to be in a separate writing and cannot be part of the royalty agreement or the lead actor’s contract.”
Joining SAG-AFTRA in the deal, announced Friday, is a coalition of record labels, including Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Disney Music Group.
Under the terms of the agreement, recording studios must provide “reasonably specific details” about the intended use of the digital replica and cannot rely on a general agreement that allows unrestricted use. Crabtree Ireland said the artist should be fully informed to make a meaningful decision about whether they agree to have their digital likeness used.
If a label releases a recording using a digital copy without proper consent, the artist can demand its removal, Crabtree-Ireland added, and failure to comply could lead to the artist pursuing a complaint through arbitration or Allows recovery of financial losses.
“Parts of this deal, including the consent framework, were really inspired by the work we did last year with studios and streamers,” Crabtree Ireland said. “If you cross-check it, you’ll find language around a reasonably specific description of intended use — language around written consent and things like that — that started with last year’s strike.”
Members of SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America staged a nationwide walkout after negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) collapsed.
In negotiations with AMPTP, SAG-AFTRA called for significant increases in pension and health plan contributions, as well as wage increases to protect their matches, streaming residuals, and AI use protections. The new contract with the record label will include a 26 percent wage increase for the performers.
The latest negotiated agreement also includes a specific compensation framework for the use of synthetic voices, or AI-generated voices — voices that are not intended to mimic the voice of a human actor.
“I think it’s a step forward in that regard,” Crabtree Ireland said. “Perhaps this will be an evolution of each of these agreements, because my vision is that in each round of negotiations, we develop AI-related provisions to keep up with advances in technology and to address an area that will do where we identify the need for improvement.”
Beyond Hollywood, national policymakers have also sought ways to protect artists, musicians and writers from having their work used to train AI models without compensation. Last week, a new law proposed by California Congressman Adam Schiff — the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act — required companies to submit their AI models to the US Copyright Office at least a month before releasing new versions. The means used for training must be disclosed.
“Obviously, on the public policy front, there are still a lot of conversations going on,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “Legislating is a complicated matter when there are so many competing interests at play.”
He supported the “No Fax” bill introduced last fall by U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Chris Coons (D-DE). Act”.
Crabtree-Ireland said, “What we really need is a federal right that establishes that artists, and indeed everyone else, have the right to control the use of their image, sound and likeness through AI technology. And that everyone has the right to consent.” “We want to see it implemented and hopefully it will happen this year.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.