SAG-AFTRA criticizes the creators of an AI ‘character’

[AI actor, from A1]

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Norwood’s creator ignited a furor after she announced that the digital actor would soon be signed by a talent agency.

This week, SAG-AFTRA weighed in with a withering response, dismissing Norwood as a “character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers.”

Two years ago, the union’s members engaged in a 118-day strike to fight for more AI protections in their contracts with major studios.

“They are taking our professional members’ work that has been created, sometimes over generations, without permission, without compensation and without acknowledgment, building something new,” SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin said in an interview.

“But the truth is, it’s not new. It manipulates something that already exists, so the conceit that it isn’t harming actors — because it is its own new thing — ignores the fundamental truth that it is taking something that doesn’t belong to them,” Astin said.

Astin said he would welcome a conversation with the company behind Tilly Norwood.

“We want to allow our members to benefit from new technologies,” Astin said. “They just need to know that it’s happening. They need to give permission for it, and they need to be bargained with.”