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The 2023 SAG-AFTRA Strike
The 118-day Hollywood actors' strike (July–November 2023) whose central demands included protection against AI replication of performers' likenesses — the most successful instance of collective bargaining through traditional labor action in the AI age.
The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists called a strike on July 14, 2023, shutting down Hollywood production for 118 days. Among the central issues was the use of AI to replicate actors' likenesses — their faces, voices, and embodied characteristics — without consent and without ongoing compensation. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers had proposed contract language that would have permitted studios to scan a background performer's likeness in a single session and use the digital replica in any future production, in perpetuity, for a single day's pay. The actors' resistance was not to digital technology but to the specific proposition that a person's physical appearance could be captured, owned, and deployed by a corporation without ongoing consent or compensation. The strike concluded November 9, 2023, with a contract containing specific AI protections — a genuine achievement, though one limited to SAG-AFTRA members.
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