As Hollywood actors and writers continue to strike for better wages and benefits, California lawmakers hope to protect workers from being replaced by their digital clones.

On Wednesday, Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jos) is expected to introduce a bill that would give actors and artists a way to nullify provisions in vague contracts that allow studios and other companies to use artificial intelligence to capture their voices, faces and digitally clone images. bodies.

“There is increasing concern that technology will be used to replace their services,” Kalra said. There is no doubt that everyone has the right to control their own image and likeness as well as their voice.

Artificial intelligence can generate images, sounds or even digital replicas, fueling fears that movie studios will use technology to wipe out entertainment jobs.

The use of what’s known as generative AI has been a sticking point in contract negotiations between high-profile actors and movie studios. Unions like SAG-AFTRA, which represents actors, voice-over artists and other entertainment workers, say more safeguards are needed to protect them from AI’s threat to their livelihoods even if they reach a favorable deal.

The bill, which was introduced days before California’s 2023 legislative session ends Thursday, is a preview of how state lawmakers hope

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protect employees from the potential dangers of AI. The legislation, Assembly Bill 459, won’t be considered by state lawmakers until next year. SAG-AFTRA, which has been on the picket line with the Writer’s Guild of America, supports the legislation.

Bills to regulate AI, including combating algorithmic discrimination, failed to advance at the Capitol this year. With tech companies and Hollywood studios crucial to California’s economy, politicians are also trying to allay concerns that government regulation could hurt innovation. Gov. Gavin Newsom is moving cautiously on the issue, issuing an executive order earlier this month directing government agencies to study the benefits and risks of generative AI.

Under AB 459, actors, voice artists and other employees who have signed away the rights to their voices or likeness, allowing companies to create digital clones or use them in other generative AI applications, would

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escape those contracts if they were not represented by a union or lawyer. Contract provisions that do not clearly define the potential use of an AI-generated digital replica would be considered “unconscionable” under California law, meaning unenforceable.

“The speed at which these technologies have been adopted means that the impact is not something that could happen at some point in the future, but is happening now as studios try to replace real people with digital scans,” says Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG- AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator said in a statement. He added that he was pleased to see that the legislation “addresses the unethical transfer of a person’s image and likeness through exploitative agreements with artists.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios in labor negotiations, has stated in the past that when it comes to screenwriting, AI raises “hard, important creative and legal questions for everyone.” With regard to acting, the AMPTP has called for informed consent and fair pay in cases where actors are digitally replicated.

Hollywood studios already use technology to scan actors’ bodies and faces so they can create digital replicas of scenes. James Earl Jones, who voiced Darth Vader in “Star Wars,” retired but allowed Disney and Lucasfilm to use AI and archival recordings to recreate his menacing and iconic voice.

But actors may also feel pressured to sign away the rights to their voice or digital likeness, or not fully understand a contract without a lawyer, Kalra said. Movie characters whose bodies have been digitally copied also fear that they will be replaced by their digital replicas. Meanwhile, entertainment companies continue to expand their AI activities.

Writers have also claimed that some tech companies are using their work to train AI systems without their consent.

In July,

comedian Sarah Silverman and novelists have sued Facebook parent company Meta and OpenAI, which developed a popular generative AI tool ChatGPT

in July

claiming that the tech companies used their copyrighted books to train AI systems.

As concerns about AI’s potential threat to the creative workforce continue to grow, Kalra says lawmakers must take action now.

We need to get ahead of this and make sure we protect those who are struggling to make ends meet, who may feel more compelled to sign on the dotted line, he said.