SAG-AFTRA is expected to send its final proposed contract with requested changes on AI protections to the AMPTP, a move that could bring the announcement of a strike-ending deal.
Insiders on both sides of the talks have told TheWrap that artificial intelligence has been the final hurdle in negotiations to end the 118-day actors’ strike, as SAG-AFTRA has pushed hard for guardrails against the nascent technology violating its members control over how their performances are used to make digital replicas and how much they are paid if they give their consent.
The contract language has been the subject of days of discussions among the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee members and its legal team, who have analyzed the “best, last and final” offer that the AMPTP presented the guild on Saturday. Guild-side insiders say that a major issue has been regarding whether studios will be required to obtain the consent of deceased actors’ estates in order to create digital replicas of them.
Assuming that the final contract and its AI changes are approved by the AMPTP and a deal is announced, the tentative agreement will then head to an approval vote by SAG-AFTRA’s national board — a formality in union bylaws for contracts — before being presented to guild members for a ratification vote. It is not clear yet whether SAG-AFTRA will immediately clear actors to return to work once the tentative agreement is approved by the national board, as was the case for the Writers Guild of America in September.
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