SAG-AFTRA’s Duncan Crabtree-Ireland urged lawmakers to advance an AI bill that would provide historic protections against generative artificial intelligence.
“AI technology, if left unregulated, poses an existential threat not only to SAG-AFTRA members, but also to civil discourse, student health and well-being, democracy and national security,” said he said during his testimony before members of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Intellectual Property Subcommittee on the NO FAKES Act (read it here).
The bipartisan NO FAKES Act – or the Nurture Originals, Foster Art and Keep Entertainment Safe Act – not only requires informed consent for digital replicas, but also provides historic federal intellectual property protections against the misappropriation of voices and likenesses in sound recordings and audiovisual works.
Artificial intelligence was a cornerstone of SAG-AFTRA’s negotiations with Hollywood studios last year and one of the sticking points that led the actors’ union to stage a 148-day strike. As a result, SAG-AFTRA (along with the WGA and DGA) secured provisions to protect its members from the use of AI.
SAG-AFTRA has also negotiated AI protections in its contract with the recording industry and is seeking similar provisions in its interactive media agreement with the video game companies, although those discussions are ongoing.
However, Crabtree-Ireland argued Tuesday that federal regulation is necessary to fully protect union members because they “cannot control what others do with AI-generated digital replicas of them and cannot successfully seek compensation for that use.” “
“For an artist, their voice and likeness are the foundation of their performance, brand and identity, which develops over time through investment and hard work. Taking that voice and its likeness is a form of theft. It is definitely unethical and needs to be made illegal,” he said.
Crabtree-Ireland also argued that all people need to be protected from the use of digital replicas, citing his own experience as an example. He explained that a deep fake video of him urging SAG-AFTRA members to do the same surfaced online last year not to ratify their new three-year contract.
“Despite a disclaimer in the small print of the image caption that it was a deepfake, many members neither saw nor read this disclaimer. Many members contacted me and asked me why I was rejecting the very contract I had worked so hard to negotiate,” he said. “But more than that, there is something uniquely dehumanizing about having your voice and image turned against you and every notion of freedom of expression turned on its head. “When your voice is used to say the opposite of what you believe – and you have no way to stop it – it is the ultimate violation of everyone’s right to freedom of expression and association.”
Crabtree-Ireland was joined by several others, including recording artist FKA Twigs, who also came out strongly in support of the NO FAKES Act. She told senators that she developed her own deep fake last year to use for her own creative purposes – and reiterated how it could be exploited if it were in the hands of someone else who didn’t have her Consent to Use.
“I have worked so hard throughout my career, and when I die, I want all of this, everything I created, to pass to my family and my estate, who will have clear instructions about how I want to preserve it my story and all the art I’ve created,” she said.
Crabtree-Ireland agreed with Twigs that individuals should retain the right to consent to the use of digital replicas in perpetuity, even after death, because “this is about a person’s legacy.”
“Each of us is unique. There are no other branches and never will be. There is no other you or them or any of us. “This is not the same as copyright,” he said, citing the limitations of copyright protection, which generally lasts for the life of the creator plus 70 years.
He continued: “So in my view it is an intellectual property right that deserves protection.” It should absolutely be protected after death and I’m waiting to hear a good reason why this shouldn’t be the case, to be honest.”
The NO FAKES Act is sponsored by Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Thom Tillis (R-NC).