[ti:Performers Worry Artificial Intelligence Will Take Their Jobs]
[al:Arts and Culture]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2023-06-10]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Leaders of the SAG-AFTRA actors' union say the group's members are concerned that they will lose work because of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, tools.
[00:16.12]The labor organization started talks with Hollywood movie studios about a new contract this week.
[00:26.06]Duncan Crabtree-Ireland is the main person speaking with movie studios on behalf of the actors.
[00:34.87]He is SAG-AFTRA's negotiator.
[00:38.63]He said people who work in movies have their stock-in-trade, or their special qualities that make them different from another actor. 
[00:50.47]He listed an actor's name, voice, personality and likeness when describing those qualities.
[01:00.43]Crabtree-Ireland wants to be sure actors keep making money from their special qualities.
[01:09.20]For example, the labor organization wants to prevent movie production companies from taking an actor's image in one movie and using it to create a "digital double" for a new movie.
[01:27.84]Crabtree-Ireland said it would not be fair to do that without paying extra.
[01:35.27]Artificial intelligence tools have already been used to make "deepfakes" of well-known actors Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves.
[01:46.76]Reeves called the technology "scary."
[01:51.72]Deepfake is the term for real-looking, but untrue, video.
[01:57.01]AI can be used to make deepfakes.
[02:02.09]AI tools have gained attention since the company OpenAI launched ChatGPT late last year.
[02:12.11]The tools that can create sound and video are known as generative AI.
[02:19.64]They can take real video of a person and make it seem as if the person is saying words that they never said.
[02:29.26]In Hollywood, the technology is being used to make actors look younger or to fix lip synch problems when a movie is dubbed into a different language.
[02:44.93]Justine Bateman is a producer, writer and actor. 
[02:48.94]She was on the successful television program Family Ties when she was young.
[02:53.99]Her brother is the well-known actor, Jason Bateman.
[02:57.97]She has a computer science education and is concerned about how AI will change movies and television.
[03:07.13]She said studios could take parts from her old show and make a new season.
[03:14.05]While many actors are worried about AI, others can accept it.
[03:21.89]Harrison Ford and James Earl Jones are two older actors who told moviemakers they could use AI.
[03:31.80]Ford will appear in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
[03:37.28]He first played Indiana Jones in the 1980s.
[03:42.25]Now he is 80 years old.
[03:45.78]In parts of the new movie, Ford appears as a young man.
[03:51.41]Instead of using a different actor, the moviemakers used AI to make Ford look young. 
[04:00.71]They used images of his performance in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
[04:07.50]James Earl Jones recently spoke with Vanity Fair magazine. 
[04:14.36]He said he agreed to let the producers of Star Wars use AI to recreate his voice.
[04:23.62]Jones is 92 and provides the voice for Darth Vader.
[04:30.95]He said he wants Star Wars producers to use his voice even after he dies.
[04:39.07]It is not the first time Star Wars used AI. 
[04:43.95]The company Disney used the technology to put Carrie Fisher into the 2019 film The Rise of Skywalker after she died.
[04:56.62]The actors' labor union wants to be sure anyone acting in a movie has a chance to say "yes" or "no" about using AI every time they accept a job.
[05:12.12]If SAG-AFTRA cannot reach an agreement with the movie companies, it may join the Writers Guild, another labor group, in a strike.
[05:23.60]Both unions want protections in place before signing new contracts.
[05:29.90]If the actors do not push for the protections, Bateman said, creativity and innovation might disappear from movies, television and music. 
[05:42.09]She said everything made in the future is going to be based on work from the past.
[05:50.14]"I don't want to live in that world," she said.
[05:53.65]I'm Dan Friedell. And I'm Caty Weaver.