And the Oscar for Strike of the Year goes to Hollywood

America is on strike. Labor movements are spearheading a nationwide revolution across various sectors,
including manufacturing, health services, and entertainment. These movements have successfully rallied their
members to secure better working conditions, emphasizing strong cross-union solidarity and leveraging social
media to communicate a pro-union message that garners public support, thereby exerting pressure on their
employers and marking a significant shift in the landscape of strike actions.

In the spotlight are two strikes that have captured global attention for their profound impact on an industry
dedicated to bring happiness and excitement to people worldwide: the entertainment industry. Both the recently
concluded Writers Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA strikes have become noteworthy industry
milestones.

Lasting 148 and 118 days, respectively, this double-strike event, not witnessed since 1960, has taken a
preliminary toll on the U.S. economy, estimated at over $6 billion in lost wages and business impacts, with
many of its effects still unknown.
As production gradually resumes, the aftermath of the strikes is likely to prompt a reconsideration of content
strategies within the industry. This will likely entail fewer and tighter budget productions, as well as fewer but
better-paid industry jobs.

A crucial aspect of the negotiations that reportedly was holding the end of the strikes was the regulation of
Artificial Intelligence (AI). While AI and digital scans of performers have been in use in the entertainment
industry for several years, the emergence of Generative AI (Generative-AI) has created a new scenario, where
the unknown possibilities of its reach, with large language models (LLM’s) improving at resembling human
creativity, have generated significant fear within labor movements.

Every industry must adapt to the shift toward becoming an AI-driven workplace, or risk being left behind.
However, FOBO, or fear of being obsolete and replaced by new technologies, platforms and AI, is creating a
new level of anxiety in the workplace. A recent Gallup survey showed that 22% of US-workers worry that
technology will make their jobs obsolete, a 7% increase from the 2021 survey, and is likely to keep rising with
the high-speed development of Generative-AI. This fear prompted both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA to take
this renegotiation period as pivotal in their fights for labor rights and to obtain solid and meaningful results,
which many agree did happen.

WGA focused on establishing protections that AI cannot be a “writer” or a “professional writer,” nor that
work generated by AI can be considered “source material,” to protect the human writer’s credit and
compensation. SAG-AFTRA focused on protecting its members against the disruptive use of Generative AI,
including protection against the unauthorized use of recognizable physical features of a distinctive person in
synthetic performances.

The irruption of Generative-AI as a potentially disruptive and transformative technology in various areas
currently lacks a specific legal framework. For this reason, while acknowledging that no deal will ever be perfect
and cannot regulate every conceivable situation, the recently ratified SAG-AFTRA deal produces significant
results on this front.

Noteworthy among the AI wins, the following new agreed-upon standards that the industry has adopted to
regulate the Generative-AI phenomenon are worth noting. These standards are likely to serve as a blueprint for
future negotiations in the entertainment industry worldwide, as is the case in India:

1. A clear and conspicuous consent requirement providing a “reasonably specific description of the intended
   use,” detailing specific projects, to avoid a blank and uninformed consent, as well as payment of due
   compensation (with some exceptions), for the creation, use, and alteration of digital replicas of
   performers.
2. The creation and differentiation of certain digital replicas of performers, including:
• Employment-based digital replicas for principal performers arising from employment
  relationships.
• Independently created digital replicas for principal performers that demonstrates a new reach
  by SAG-AFTRA, as there is no employment relationship involved.
• Background actor digital replicas for background actors arising from employment
  relationships.
3. A notice requirement to SAG-AFTRA and bargaining over some (if any) consideration for the
   creation and use of a synthetic performer, a figure that is different from a digital replica, given that it
   is a digitally created asset that creates a clear impression of a natural performer who is not recognizable
   as any identifiable human performer.
4. A consent requirement from any identifiable human performer when the synthetic performer
   resembles such a person, given that it replicates a “principal facial feature,” such as its distinctive eyes or
   nose.

These concessions will indeed act as guardrails of protection against the unrestricted use of Generative-AI,
illustrating that labor unions can and should explore creative solutions to regulate this technology given their
first-hand knowledge of the potential effects, rather than advocating for an outright ban, as some union
representatives have pushed for, considering that it was justifiably a non-starter for studios that are aiming to
compete with the looming threat of Big-Tech AI-driven companies that operate outside union standards.
Nevertheless, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details, and the enforcement of the agreement will likely
generate some grievances that the parties will need to address and reach a new consensus.

One thing is clear: This is not the end of the fight for labor rights in Hollywood, but a hiatus. Soon, the
American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Agreement will expire on May 2024, the SAG-AFTRA Network TV
Code (talk shows, reality/competition shows, variety shows, soap operas) will expire on June 30, and the
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Agreement will expire on July 31, and
Generative-AI will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in the renegotiations. Furthermore, in the blink of an eye,
the WGA, SAG-AFTRA, and AMPTP will need to start preparing for renegotiations of the deals set to finish
approximately two and a half years from now, where ongoing dialogue and communication will be key to
avoiding new strikes.

Will technology, particularly Generative-AI, still lead the chart of concern for these unions? We will have to
wait and see the sequel.