SAG-AFTRA Deal Stirs Concerns on Artificial Intelligence and Pensions
SAG-AFTRA Deal Stirs Concerns on Artificial Intelligence and Pensions
https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/sag-aftra-artificial-intelligence-pensions-concerns-1236746577/
Publish Date: 2026-05-12 18:40:00
Source Domain: variety.com
SAG-AFTRA leaders are beginning the process of selling their new studio contract to the membership, amid lingering concerns about artificial intelligence and the merger of two pension funds.
The deal, unveiled on Monday, allows studios to use synthetic performers only if they bring “significant additional value” to a project. It also requires studios to notify and bargain with the union if they license performances for AI training.
But for some members, that language is too flexible and far from reassuring.
“Who determines that? A studio lawyer — that’s who determines ‘significant additional value,’” said Erik Passoja, a former co-chair of the union’s L.A. New Technology Committee. “And if a studio licenses your performance to a third party, they have to give written notice and meet to discuss it. No consent. No compensation floor. The union gets a meeting. The performer gets nothing.”
The fear of being replaced by AI was a key issue behind the 2023 strike, and though the union was able to win significant protections in that agreement, the concern has not gone away. Since then, London-based Particle6 has touted “Tilly Norwood” as a movie-star-in-waiting, and other AI companies are racing to develop films with fully synthetic characters.
SAG-AFTRA went into this round of negotiations in February with the aim of driving up the price of using a synthetic performer — potentially with a required payment to a union fund — such that studios would generally opt for human actors.
Though the union did not achieve that goal, the studios did agree to a broad principle in favor of human performances, as well as an arbitration provision with potential monetary penalties for violations of the contract.
“When you take all the components together, the companies can and will use synthetics only in edge cases,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s executive director, in an interview on…
