SAG-AFTRA Strike: AI Fears Mount for Background Actors
variety.comGene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Prince Royal, an actor in Los Angeles, was working as an extra on “The Flash” when he was directed to a tractor trailer to “take pictures.” Inside were hundreds of cameras.
He stood with his arms up as the operators took a 3-D scan, which he was told would be used for continuity and special effects. “We were told if we didn’t do it, we’d be sent home without pay,” he said.
Now he feels like he was duped. “We don’t know what all our scans are being used for,” he said. “They could possibly use our scans in other movies and other shows.” That fear is one of the flash points of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s chief negotiator, has warned that studios want to scan background actors and then use artificial intelligence to place those actors in other projects “for the rest of eternity” without consent.
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