Among the many sticking points at the heart of SAG-AFTRA and the WGA’s battles for new contracts is the role of artificial intelligence, as it continues to develop. For Marvel star Clark Gregg, keeping that role limited feels a bit like “we’re fighting to keep the soul in the art form” of acting.
Speaking to TheWrap on Day 1 of SAG joining the WGA on strike, Gregg said that, for him, “AI is the scariest” issue, simply because there’s no way to know exactly what it’s going to become or how it will be utilized.
“To have fundamental things like your likeness — when you do a, let’s just say a genre movie, maybe in a superhero universe, there are intense scans done of you all over,” Gregg explained, near the picket lines at Amazon Studios in Los Angeles. “And you know, at some point, they’re probably going to be able to replicate you. That needs to be with your permission, your consent, your involvement.”
He continued: “You know, we’re not just information to be fed into a computer. That’s not what humanity is for. And I think I feel like we’re kind of fighting to keep the soul in the art form.”
You can watch TheWrap’s full conversation with Gregg in the video below.
Gregg wasn’t the only actor on the picket line concerned about AI. Christopher Clawson, another SAG member who also happens to have a master’s degree in innovation and technology from the University of San Diego, hopes to see the unions “come up with a very specific language that will protect performers.”
“The thing that scares me is that the studio’s know more about what these capabilities are, than the union,” Clawson said. “Because they’re the ones who get pitched this stuff, you know? They’re the ones with the deep pockets. And so they’ve seen what this tech can do. It might not be quite ready for primetime now, but in the next two to three, four years tops, it’s gonna be here, you’re not even going to need an actor for a performance.”
See all of TheWrap’s Hollywood strike coverage here.
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