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The increasing capabilities of generative AI systems were all the rage at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year, but for all the enthusiasm from the tech world, there is still plenty of concern about the impact these tools will have on the workforce, from industrial and service work to creative industries, including entertainment, film and TV. So while the crowds were jamming the aisles of the Las Vegas Convention Center, representatives of America’s biggest unions were meeting down the street at the AFL-CIO’s Labor Innovation and Technology Summit to coordinate strategy around AI and try to ensure that workers have a seat at the table when it comes to setting policy around AI.

Co-founded by SAG-AFTRA, the AFL-CIO, and the AFL-CIO Tech Institute, the LIT Summit brings together top labor leaders, worker advocates, policy experts, and allied organizations to discuss workers’ role in emerging technologies, as Big Tech’s role in the market and the halls of government evolves, according to the organization. Some of the unions in attendance such as the machinists have been engaged around issues of automation for decades, while others like those representing teachers and nurses are looking to ensure that new AI-driven innovations in education and medicine are deployed in collaboration and consultation with frontline workers rather than imposed from above.

In Hollywood, the first battles have already been fought. SAG-AFTRA, representing actors and performers, and the Writers Guild of America (WGA), representing screenwriters, playwrights and some online journalists, struck for months in 2023, with language relating to the use of AI as one of the main bargaining points. SAG-AFRTRA is still striking video game makers to secure the same protections for voice actors working in that segment of the business. The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has ongoing negotiations with the studios, and has quietly inserted new AI-related terms into contracts for members. All these unions managed to carve out important concessions and limitations that help protect showbusiness creatives and give them a say in how AI is being used in their workplace, but the speed with which the industry is moving demands constant vigilance.

This year, vendors demonstrated newer, more powerful tools with the potential to automate bigger chunks of the production pipeline. Generative AI-enabled special effects allowed filmmakers to de-age Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in real time in the recent Robert Zemeckis film Here. Text-to-video tools are getting good enough to be used for previsualization of scenes, while AI-generated avatars can imitate human speech and simulate human performances.

Promoters of these technologies are quick to note how these capabilities amplify the creative vision of humans and increase efficiencies in time consuming areas of production. They also tout how they “democratize” creativity by opening up the potential of filmmaking to creators without access to the resources and connections that Hollywood often requires. Labor leaders recognize the importance of reframing the conversation to carve out space for discussion of issues around worker autonomy and job protections without appearing to be anti-progress or luddite.

“When I hear the word democratization, on one hand, I think, it’s good to take down barriers for creatives,” said Russell Hollander, National Executive Director of the DGA. “But too often, it means those creators get paid pennies, and if something hits, all the money flows to the tech companies and the platform. It’s not about democracy. Too often, it’s about getting things for free.”

Negotiating A.I. Contracts: How Unions Can Advance A.I. Protections Across Sectors. Left to right: … [+] Linda Powell, SAG-AFTRA Executive Vice President (Moderator), Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator, Russell Hollander, DGA Executive Director, Sam Wheeler, Writers Guild of America East Executive Director. Photo Credit SAG-AFTRA

SAG-AFTRA

For the Hollywood unions, the main issues are consent, compensation and control. Many tech companies built their AI products by training on creative works directly scraped from the Internet, using legal loopholes and aggressive policies to help themselves to data without seeking permission from creators or copyright holders. SAG-AFTRA and the WGA hope to put the brakes on that by bargaining for use of ethically-trained AIs that pay creators for their content, pay royalties for use, and give them provisions to opt out.

Directors are bargaining to make sure that studios don’t use AI to subvert the vision of filmmakers, and to protect the integrity of directors’ stake in IP. “For us, it depends on who has the control, the creative artist or the tech platforms and bean counters,” said Hollander. “If our members get to use the AI with an artist to develop storyboards collaboratively, that’s a good thing. If it’s used to replace the storyboard artist and displace labor, we don’t support that.”

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, Executive Director and Chief Negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, emphasized that ongoing dialogue with union members is essential, to make sure the union is bargaining on the issues that directly matter. “Some of our members don’t like AI at all and don’t want it used,” he said. “That’s a valid position, but if we’re going to make the most of our leverage as unions, we can’t be completely against the tech. We need to make sure it is human centered and a net positive, and that means providing concrete proposals for how it can and should be used.”

For WGA-East Executive Director Sam Wheeler, the issues for workers are also issues for the public at large. “AI systems can be bad, sometimes in ways that really matter,” he said. “They make mistakes, they are biased, they can be used to create deepfakes and deceptive content.” He said that WGA-East, which represents some online journalists as well as writers of creative works, wants to ensure that publishers deal honestly with readers by giving writers the right to decline a byline if AI was used to create news content.

One of the biggest challenges for negotiators is how quickly the tools are evolving. Often, situations that might seem like science fiction one day are actual products the next, creating a new set of issues that parties need to address. Crabtree-Ireland said that it is important to capture these possibilities in contracts ahead of time, not rely on assurances from employers.

“They say ‘trust us, we won’t do that,’” he said. “Fine, but if you’re not planning to do it, then why not put it in writing?”

Hollander pointed out that it is important to recognize what needs to be addressed through legislation or litigation rather than in the bargaining process. It is not only employers using these tools, and some of the players are not party to negotiations.

One pending legislative effort is the No Fakes Act, a bill that was working its way through Congress last term to protect the name, image and likeness of public and private citizens alike from AI-generated deepfakes and other nefarious content. At a panel earlier in the week, Crabtree-Ireland expressed the hope that there was bipartisan consensus on the main provisions and No Fakes could pass this year under the incoming administration. However even on an issue that seems so unambiguously in the public interest, some industry leaders and civic groups don’t like to be seen conceding anything that could erode their maximalist “free speech” position, and it remains to be seen whether this will be a priority for Congress. There are also a bunch of cases pending in US courts on issues regarding fair use of content scraped for use in AI models, copyright protections for AI content and related topics.

With legislative and judicial outcomes uncertain, the unions hope that the power of collective bargaining and solidarity can protect workers from the worst outcomes of AI, while helping the industry steer innovation in a more human-centric direction. Given the “shock and awe” mustered by the tech titans at this year’s massive CES and trumpeted throughout the media and financial markets, they have their work cut out for them.