Latest news with #Crabtree-Ireland
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
Video game performers vote on contract that could end nearly 3-year battle over AI
LOS ANGELES -- Results from a union member vote on a tentative contract between video game performers and their employers are expected Wednesday evening. If ratified, the contract would formally end a nearly three-year effort from Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists negotiators to obtain a new contract for video game performers. The process, which included an 11-month strike against several major game makers, hinged on how artificial intelligence would affect performers in the industry. If approved, the agreement will deliver pay raises, control over performers' likenesses and artificial intelligence protections. The contract was first reached in early June between the union and an industry bargaining group consisting of several major video game companies, including divisions of Activision and Electronic Arts. The nearly year-long strike was suspended on June 11 and about 3,000 SAG-AFTRA members covered by the interactive media agreement have had since June 18 to vote. Results will be announced soon after the vote ends at 5 p.m. Pacific. The 11-month strike 'was a grueling and excruciating process, ' Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator said before the voting period closed. 'I hope and I believe that our members, when they look back on this, will say all of the sacrifices and difficulty we put ourselves through to achieve this agreement will ultimately be worth it because we do have the key elements that we need to feel confident and moving forward in this business,' Crabtree-Ireland said. The new contract secures 'industry-leading' AI protections, said Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for the video game producers involved in the deal. The proposed contract delineates clear restrictions on when and how video game companies can create digital replicas, which use AI to generate new performances that weren't recorded by an actor. Employers must obtain written permission from a performer to create a digital replica — consent which must be granted during the performer's lifetime and is valid after death unless otherwise limited, the contract states. The time spent creating a digital replica will be compensated as work time, according to the agreement. The agreement also requires the employer to provide the performer with a usage report that details how the replica was used and calculates the expected compensation. The contract also secured an increase in performer compensation of just over 15% upon ratification and an additional 3% increase each year of the three-year contract. Increasing awareness and knowledge about the new AI provisions among union membership is crucial moving forward if the contract is ratified, Sarah Elmaleh, a voice actor and chair of the union's interactive branch negotiating committee, told The Associated Press before the voting period closed. 'Actually applying these guardrails in our work is going to take members paying attention, understanding what they should look out for, being engaged with their union and reporting things that look fishy or that are actually violations,' she said.
Boston Globe
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Video game performers vote on contract that could end nearly three-year battle over AI
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Results will be announced soon after the vote ends at 5 p.m. Pacific. Advertisement The 11-month strike 'was a grueling and excruciating process, ' Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator said before the voting period closed. 'I hope and I believe that our members, when they look back on this, will say all of the sacrifices and difficulty we put ourselves through to achieve this agreement will ultimately be worth it because we do have the key elements that we need to feel confident and moving forward in this business,' Crabtree-Ireland said. The new contract secures 'industry-leading' AI protections, said Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for the video game producers involved in the deal. The proposed contract delineates clear restrictions on when and how video game companies can create digital replicas, which use AI to generate new performances that weren't recorded by an actor. Advertisement What's part of the tentative video game performers contract Employers must obtain written permission from a performer to create a digital replica — consent which must be granted during the performer's lifetime and is valid after death unless otherwise limited, the contract states. The time spent creating a digital replica will be compensated as work time, according to the agreement. The agreement also requires the employer to provide the performer with a usage report that details how the replica was used and calculates the expected compensation. The contract also secured an increase in performer compensation of just over 15% upon ratification and an additional 3% increase each year of the three-year contract. Increasing awareness and knowledge about the new AI provisions among union membership is crucial moving forward if the contract is ratified, Sarah Elmaleh, a voice actor and chair of the union's interactive branch negotiating committee, told The Associated Press before the voting period closed. 'Actually applying these guardrails in our work is going to take members paying attention, understanding what they should look out for, being engaged with their union and reporting things that look fishy or that are actually violations,' she said.
NBC News
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Video game actors' strike ends after tentative deal is reached
The video game actors' strike was suspended on Wednesday after a tentative deal with game publishers was announced, bringing an end to the union's nearly year-long strike. The previous Interactive Media Agreement between the actors and video game companies expired in July 2022, and did not have any protections for artificial intelligence, according to the SAG-AFTRA, which counts 2,600 voice actors, stunt performers, motion capture and performance capture actors among its union members. The actors began striking in July. Activision Productions, Blindlight, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts Productions, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Llama Productions, Take 2 Productions and WB Games were among the struck video game companies. The strike also applied to specific games on a case-by-case basis. The future of generative AI — and how it can be used to replace labor — was a crucial sticking point for actors and writers during last year's Hollywood strikes. While the actors and writers unions came to deals with studios in 2023, negotiations between video game actors and major game developers continued. Terms of the new contract have not yet been announced. But in a news release about the tentative deal, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland mentioned progress had been made regarding AI provisions. "Patience and persistence has resulted in a deal that puts in place the necessary A.I. guardrails that defend performers' livelihoods in the A.I. age, alongside other important gains," he stated. Crabtree-Ireland, who also served as the chief negotiator, acknowledged "the sacrifices made by video game performers and the dedication of the Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee throughout these many months of the video game strike." SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher also commended the "incredible courage and persistence" of the video game performers, as well as 'the tireless work of our negotiating committee" in helping secure a deal. A spokesperson for the union did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment on Wednesday. Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for the video game producers party to the Interactive Media Agreement, also commended the deal. 'This agreement builds on three decades of successful partnership between the interactive entertainment industry and the union," she sand in an email statement. "It delivers historic wage increases of over 24% for performers, enhanced health and safety protections, and industry-leading AI provisions requiring transparency, consent and compensation for the use of digital replicas in games. We look forward to continuing to work with performers to create new and engaging entertainment experiences for billions of players throughout the world.'
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SAG-AFTRA's Chief Negotiator Is Open to White House Efforts to Boost Movie Production In U.S.
SAG-AFTRA's national executive director and chief negotiator has weighed in on President Donald Trump's idea to apply tariffs to films produced outside the U.S. — and signaled an open mind about it. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the staff leader of the 160,000-strong performers' union, said in a statement on Monday that 'SAG-AFTRA supports efforts to increase movie, television and streaming production in the United States.' Crabtree-Ireland noted that the union will continue to 'advocate for policies that strengthen our competitive position, accelerate economic growth and create good middle class jobs for American workers.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Employees at Austin Alamo Drafthouse Location Vote to Unionize California, Once a Mecca for Animation Work, Is Rapidly Losing Ground, Report Claims Production Assistants, Seeing Work Dwindle, View a Union as Their Future The labor leader added that the union is looking forward to learning more specifics of the plan and to 'advancing a dialogue to achieve our common goals.' Crabtree-Ireland is the first out of the gate amongst Hollywood's labor leaders to publicly respond to the notion that Trump put forward in a Truth Social post on Sunday. At the time, Trump called for a '100% tariff' on 'any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.' Trump did not mention television shows or digital media projects in his post. The White House later walked that assertion back a bit, with a White House spokesperson telling The Hollywood Reporter that 'no final decisions' have been made regarding the tariffs idea. Hollywood industry leaders, including some in labor, have been reeling following Trump's Sunday announcement. Several unions had been working on potential legislation to create a federal tax incentive for U.S.-produced projects and were focused on that effort when Trump's tariffs message came through. More to come. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
SAG-AFTRA Chief Lays Out What A.I. Protections It Will Be Looking For In Its Next Studio Contract
Artificial intelligence was a major factor in the actors strike of 2023 and the burgeoning technology will remain a key element in next year's negotiations. SAG-AFTRA chief Duncan Crabtree-Ireland has laid out some of the guilds plans ahead of its contract with the studios expiring in June 2026. More from Deadline SAG-AFTRA's Duncan Crabtree-Ireland On Why Studios And Streamers Are Taking "A More Tempered Approach" To AI SAG-AFTRA's 'Rock The City' Event Saluting New York Industry Draws Top Elected Officials SAG Awards Sets 2026 Date & Timeline Speaking on a Deadline-moderated panel at SeriesFest in Denver, Crabtree-Ireland, who is National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator at SAG-AFTRA, revealed that the guild would be 'starting our preparations for negotiations this fall'. He said that he believes that A.I. will be an important factor in these talks. 'I'd never prejudge it, because our members – we're a member driven organization – decide what our priorities are going to be. We didn't get everything that I would have wanted [in 2023], or that they would have wanted in that negotiation. This is evolving over time. In the commercial contract deal we just got, we achieved, for the first time, a contractual limitation on the use of our members' work for training A.I. systems. That's not something we have been able to achieve in any prior contract until just now,' he said. In SAG-AFTRA's TV/Theatrical Contract, it scored protections against the studios and streamers using artificial intelligence in a way that would result in job losses or infringe on performers or as Crabtree-Ireland calls it 'consent and compensation'. In the 2025 Commercials Contract that was just approved by SAG-AFTRA's National Board, it secured protections forcing advertisers or agencies to ask SAG-AFTRA permission before they can authorize any third parties to use such material to train an A.I. system. 'We would have liked to have had that in the TV theatrical agreement. We weren't able to achieve that despite being on strike for over four months. But I think now as this industry evolves, as the use of the technology evolves, and as our contracts evolve, we may be able to make progress in areas where everyone was just too, frankly, scared to reach agreement before, and we really want to see that. There's a lot to improve upon, even though those guardrails and guidelines have become so important, and I think have served our members very well, but we're always in the mood of improving our contracts every time,' he added. Crabtree-Ireland was talking alongside Scott Mann, Co-CEO & Founder, Flawless and Nikola Todorovic, Co-Founder and CEO, Wonder Dynamics. He agreed that the studios and streamers have taken a relatively cautious approach to the use of A.I. in the last 18 months. SAG-AFTRA has sat down with these companies a few times since the deal to discuss A.I., as laid out in its contract. 'It's been a much more cautious uptake than I had initially expected. I do think part of that is driven by the contractual limitations and rules that we've got. I think probably a big part of it is, during the strikes, it became really apparent that the public is also very concerned about what A.I. means, and I think these companies are thinking about what the ramifications are for their relationship with their consumers as part of rolling the stuff out and trying to avoid making missteps, which, frankly, I appreciate. Because I think if we work together on this rollout, it can be much better than it would have been in some sort of gold rush,' he added. Best of Deadline 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery Brad Pitt's Apple 'F1' Movie: Everything We Know So Far Everything We Know About 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 So Far
