As adoption of artificial intelligence in the US outpaces efforts to regulate it, organized labor is providing an important check on how the technology gets used, according to the head of the Hollywood actors’ union.
“Collective bargaining has been the fastest and most effective way for the regulation of AI technology,” SAG-AFTRA Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said Thursday at an AFL-CIO workers’ summit in Washington.
“We’ve got to make sure the economic incentives drive work for humans,” Crabtree-Ireland said.
SAG-AFTRA secured several AI-related protections for its members, including requirements that studios obtain informed consent and provide fair compensation for the use of digital replicas, after a 2023 strike that ground Hollywood to a halt for nearly four months.
