SAG-AFTRA Boss Says AI Takedowns Matter More Than Damages To Performers

In an era of deepfakes, performers whose likenesses are misused by AI mostly want that content taken down rather than to go after damages, according to Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, CEO of SAG-AFTRA. “I would say the vast majority, 90-plus percent of the time, that’s what it’s about,” Crabtree-Ireland said at Web Summit in Lisbon. “It’s not someone wants to get into litigation and make money. They want it to stop because they don’t agree with it, they don’t want their image used that way. It’s wrong.” The SAG-AFTRA topper was speaking at a Deadline-moderated session at Web Summit entitled ‘Hollywood’s Identity Crisis’. He recalled his own experience of having his likeness misused while his members were on strike in 2023, before foregrounding the proposed No Fakes Act, which would give people greater control over their own voice and likeness. “People deserve the right to have a say in what words come out of their mouth and what they appear to be doing online. A system like the No Fakes Act would provide that. And to quell any fears, it’s really not about suing people and making a lot of money. What it’s really about is getting platforms to take stuff down when your image, likeness and voice is being used without your permission.” Watch on Deadline AI was the main talking point at Web Summit, and Crabtree-Ireland was asked if he detected a shift in his members’ attitudes toward the technology. “I think that there’s been a sense that if we put the right basic rules in place, that there is a way to coexist with AI,” he said. ”There’s been an understanding and an acceptance of the fact that no one can stop it, no one can block it.” He added that a portion of SAG AFTRA membership remains staunch AI refuseniks. “Some of our members would like us to block it. I know, I hear from them every day and they’re angry that we aren’t. But the reality is, if I were estimating, I’d say that’s something like 10%, maybe 15% [of members].” There is also the portion of SAG-AFTRA that wants to use AI to augment their work. “Some of our members really want to work with AI tools for augmentation, but none of them want to be replaced by AI because they love the act of creation, that’s why they do this. What you want to do is have the chance to do it, and yes, have tools that help you expand your creativity. That’s the sweet spot. “Frankly, we could settle on that and then send the rest of the AI resources toward curing more diseases or some other things like that.” Crabtree-Ireland was speaking on Web Summit’s enormous main stage, where, earlier in the week, AI-generated performer Tilly Norwood had been a guest. The SAG-AFTRA boss was at pains to highlight the difference between fully synthetic characters and AI replicas of real performers. “It’s important that we distinguish between humans and algorithmic outputs because an AI character, an AI asset, a generative AI-created character is not a person. It doesn’t have the life of a person; it doesn’t have the experience of a person. One of the bigger problems we have with AI in general is we are anthropomorphizing AI models and robots and blurring the lines between humanity and non-human, artificially created entities.”