Posted on 07/15/2023 1:14:36 PM PDT by Drew68
During today’s press conference in which Hollywood actors confirmed that they were going on strike, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, revealed a proposal from Hollywood studios that sounds ripped right out of a Black Mirror episode.
In a statement about the strike, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said that its proposal included “a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members.”
“If you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”
When asked about the proposal during the press conference, Crabtree-Ireland said that “This ‘groundbreaking’ AI proposal that they gave us yesterday, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get one day’s pay, and their companies should own that scan, their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity on any project they want, with no consent and no compensation. So if you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”
In response, AMPTP spokesperson Scott Rowe sent out a statement denying the claims made during SAG-AFTRA’s press conference. “The claim made today by SAG-AFTRA leadership that the digital replicas of background actors may be used in perpetuity with no consent or compensation is false. In fact, the current AMPTP proposal only permits a company to use the digital replica of a background actor in the motion picture for which the background actor is employed. Any other use requires the background actor’s consent and bargaining for the use, subject to a minimum payment.”
The use of generative AI has been one of the major sticking points in negotiations between the two sides (it’s also a major issue behind the writers strike), and in her opening statement of the press conference, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said that “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.”
The SAG-AFTRA strike will officially commence at midnight tonight.
Disclosure: The Verge’s editorial staff is also unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East.
New talent will sign away their AI likenesses in perpetuity. But there will be be no need to chase new talent when you can make a brand-new film with a 27-year old Jack Nicholson or a 21-year old Sandra Bullock. Established actors with built-in box office clout.
Want dead actors? Contract the likenesses from estate-holders and make brand-new films with Steve McQueen or John Wayne.
And since they're all AI, they'll do whatever you want them to. No stunt doubles needed.
No sets needed either. That'll all be CGI. Screenplays will be AI.
The future is gonna be so fake.
I’d love to see Audrey Hepburn acting again.
BYE BYE IMMORAL CREEPS......ROBOTS HAVE NO SOUL JUST LIKE YOU !
You will. This is the future. The technology is already here and it's only getting better.
Now whether or not you'll enjoy the films that the new AI Audrey Hepburn stars in is a different question altogether.
Why use replicas of actual human actors?
Instead, synthesize idealized virtual actors. I think that’s the way the gaming industry does it. They don’t depend on human stars. And gaming revenues are bigger than movie box office.
Just FYI, the people running Hollywood, and other studios, are far bigger scum than retarded, vacuous actors and actresses.
Gaming is interactive. Movies are passive activities. When it comes to quietly watching a film, people are going to want to see actors they recognize.
And some actors are timeless. Even though they haven't made a movie in decades, you could show a photo of John Wayne or Marilyn Monroe to almost any grade schooler and they'll know who they are.
I would imagine the porn industry is way ahead on this technology.
FIND.......none of the have moral souls!
No residuals? This is why actors need agents/
The "deep fake" porn is going to be a challenge. People will make porn films with public figures that are so convincing, they look indistinguishable from the real thing.
Or they'll make deep fakes of public figures saying horribly offensive comments or committing offensive, embarrassing acts.
And, again, it's all going to look authentic.
We're not going to know what's real and what isn't.
Hollywood is worse than Covid
Years ago, when asked how long copyrights for film and television should be, Jack Valenti ( MPAA ) said, "forever."
The "digital" copyright law was amended to please Disney years back, and so was dubbed the "Mickey Mouse Law." They didn't want Steamboat Willie falling into public domain. But it will anyway in time -- unless the ghost of Valenti re-appears. Via AI as a fake, of course.
"A plastic surgeon gets suspicious when the police question him about the death of a model he's worked on, and learns that all the models he's worked on who came in with "shopping lists" of miniscule changes that "had to be fixed, so I could be perfect," are dead. Susan Day has just come in with a list of her own, and he decides to keep an eye on her - and learns of a plot to use computer generated images made from detailed electronic measurements of the models to replace live models for commercials and acting."
So imagine Audrey Hepburn and John Wayne.... Or a foursome of the Bidens and Obamas.... For this obvious reason, the technology must be reined in.
The plan, I’d bet, is for the actors to get some nominal payment equivalent to a song play on spotify.
And the people who oppose those public figures will SWEAR that the deep fakes are real.
The flip side is, public figures who do commit embarrassing gaffes can simply say, "That was a deep fake. I never did that."
Only those who were actually there will know the truth and only those who want to believe them will.
It's ridiculous how long and extensive intellectual property has become. I'd roll back copyright terms to maybe 50 years, expand fair use, and deny protection to actors' likeness after death, regardless of whether a studio or the actor's estate claims to own it.
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