- By Shiona McCallum
- Technology journalist
Salma Hayek discovers she sold the rights to her likeness to the AI in a recent episode of Black Mirror
Hollywood actors strike for the first time in 43 years, shutting down the American film and television business, in part over fears over the impact of artificial intelligence (AI).
The Screen Actors Guild of Actors Union (SAG-AFTRA) has failed to reach an agreement in the US on better protection against AI for its members – and has warned that ‘AI poses an existential threat for creative professions” as he prepared to dig up the problem.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the chief negotiator of the SAG-AFTRA union, has criticized manufacturers for their AI proposals so far.
He said the studios had asked for the ability to scan the faces of background artists for the payment of a day’s work, and then be able to own and use their likeness “for the rest of eternity, in any project that want, without consent and no compensation”.
If that sounds like the plot of an episode of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, that’s because it is.
US media were quick to point out that the recent episode of the sixth series ‘Joan Is Awful’ finds Hollywood star Salma Hayek grappling with the discovery that her resemblance to AI can be exploited by a production company in its unaware.
image source, Getty Images
Harrison Ford has been aged using computer technology, including machine learning, in the latest Indiana Jones movie
And it’s not just SAG-AFTRA that is concerned about so-called “performance cloning.”
Liam Budd, of UK acting union Equity, said: “We’re seeing this technology used in a range of things like automated audio books, synthesized voiceover work, digital avatars for corporate videos or even deepfakes that are used in films. “
Mr Budd said there was “fear circulating” among Equity members and that the union was trying to educate them to understand their rights in this fast-changing world.
Director and writer Justine Bateman, speaking to the BBC’s Tech Life earlier this year, said she doesn’t think the entertainment industry needs artificial intelligence.
“Technology is supposed to solve a problem, and there’s no problem that AI users solve. There’s no shortage of screenwriters, there’s no shortage of actors, there’s no shortage of directors, so we don’t need AI,” he said.
“The problem it solves is for companies that feel like they don’t have profit margins large enough, because if you can eliminate the overhead of having to pay everyone you can appease Wall Street and have bigger earnings reports.
“If the use of artificial intelligence proliferates, the entertainment industry will collapse the entire structure of this business.”
Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before ChatGPT or Bard can create an innovative film script or turn an idea into a successful screenplay.
Watch: Brian Cox: ‘I’m Concerned About Artificial Intelligence’
Some say AI will always lack the humanity that makes a movie script great, but there are legitimate concerns it will put writers out of work.
The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) – a union representing writers for TV, film, theatre, books and video games in the UK – has several concerns, including:
- AI developers use the work of the writers without their permission and violate the copyright of the writers
- AI tools don’t correctly identify where AI was used to create content
- More use of AI will lead to fewer job opportunities for writers
- The use of artificial intelligence will suppress writers’ pay
- AI will dilute the creative industry’s contributions to the UK’s economy and national identity.
The WGGB has made a number of recommendations to help protect writers, including AI developers only use the work of writers if they have received explicit permission, and AI developers are transparent about what data is used to train writers. their tools.
WGGB Deputy Secretary General Lesley Gannon said: ‘As with any new technology, we need to weigh the risks against the benefits and ensure that the speed of development does not exceed or derail the protections writers and the wider creative workforce rely upon. foster care to earn a living.
“Regulation is clearly needed to safeguard workers’ rights and protect the public from fraud and misinformation.”
Watch: Susan Sarandon on the dangers of artificial intelligence in the film industry
The rapid development of AI over the past year has led to the concept of ownership becoming more complicated.
When someone enters their likeness into an AI-powered portrait app like DrawAnyone, DALL-E, or even Snapchat, the resulting images are now in the public domain and free for anyone to use.
The new image is not protected by copyright law.
Dr Mathilde Pavis, a lawyer specializing in digital cloning technologies, told the BBC that UK copyright laws need to change.
“It’s strange to me that your face and voice are less protected than your car, your laptop, your phone, your home or your books, but that’s the state of the law today.
“And that’s because we didn’t think we were going to be as vulnerable – as vulnerable as we are in terms of being reused and mimicked with AI technologies,” he said.
Additional reports by Tom Gerken and Tom Singleton.
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Image Source : www.bbc.com