Fran Drescher Declares Artificial Intelligence an “Existential Threat” to Creative Professions, Demands Contract Protections for Actors and Writers

In a news conference Thursday, Fran Drescher, president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), declared that “artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to creative professions, and all actors and performers deserve contract language that protects them from having their identity and talent exploited without consent and pay.”

The 65,000 Hollywood actors now on strike in the U.S. have much in common with the 11,000 script writers who remain off the job because of a labor dispute with the motion picture studios. The issue of how studios want to use AI in TV and movies has become a crucial sticking point for actors going on strike.

SAG-AFTRA has joined the Writer’s Guild of America, which represents Hollywood screenwriters and has been on strike for more than two months, in demanding a contract that would guarantee actors fair pay and control over how their work is used in the future.

For the many background actors whose names and faces aren’t instantly recognizable, the advent of ever more powerful types of AI threatens their ability to make ends meet in what is already a highly stratified industry. Drescher noted that “actors and performers deserve contract language that protects them from having their identity and talent exploited without consent and pay.”

The strike has been ongoing for over two months and shows no signs of abating. Both the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writer’s Guild of America are standing firm in their demands for a contract that will protect actors and writers from the potential exploitation of AI.