{"id":244731,"date":"2026-05-12T18:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/sag-aftra-deal-stirs-concerns-on-artificial-intelligence-and-pensions\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T18:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:45:08","slug":"sag-aftra-deal-stirs-concerns-on-artificial-intelligence-and-pensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/sag-aftra-deal-stirs-concerns-on-artificial-intelligence-and-pensions\/","title":{"rendered":"SAG-AFTRA Deal Stirs Concerns on Artificial Intelligence and Pensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAG-AFTRA Deal Stirs Concerns on Artificial Intelligence and Pensions<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/tv\/news\/sag-aftra-artificial-intelligence-pensions-concerns-1236746577\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-12 18:40:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: variety.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tSAG-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.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe deal, unveiled on Monday, allows studios to use synthetic performers only if they bring \u201csignificant additional value\u201d to a project. It also requires studios to notify and bargain with the union if they license performances for AI training.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut for some members, that language is too flexible and far from reassuring.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWho determines that? A studio lawyer \u2014 that\u2019s who determines \u2018significant additional value,’\u201d said Erik Passoja, a former co-chair of the union\u2019s L.A. New Technology Committee. \u201cAnd if a studio licenses your performance to a\u00a0third 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 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 \u201cTilly Norwood\u201d as a movie-star-in-waiting, and other AI companies are racing to develop films with fully synthetic characters.<\/p>\n

\n\tSAG-AFTRA went into this round of negotiations in February with the aim of driving up the price of using a synthetic performer \u2014 potentially with a required payment to a union fund \u2014 such that studios would generally opt for human actors.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough 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.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen you take all the components together, the companies can and will use synthetics only in edge cases,\u201d said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union\u2019s executive director, in an interview on…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":244732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/duncan-crabtree-ireland-sean-astin.jpeg?crop=0px%2C114px%2C1918px%2C1080px&resize=1000%2C563","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244731"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244733,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244731\/revisions\/244733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}