AI deepfake videos worry Hollywood actors ahead of wage talks

The increasing ability of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate realistic content, such as deep fakes, has caused concern in Hollywood, and the rise of AI is sparking debate among actors, writers, and studios about their compensation and content creation.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) recently expressed concern about the rise of AI deep fakes in Hollywood, reports Interesting Engineering.

The actors union is preparing to negotiate labour contracts with studios, and the use of AI is among the top issues.

According to SAG-AFTRA Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the actors’ “digital doubles” should be controlled to ensure fair compensation when using their personas.

Actors and writers in Hollywood are concerned that studios will try to cut costs and increase revenue by using AI to generate new content without the assistance and guidance of production.

Moreover, the report said that the celebrities such as Hollywood actors Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves have been the victims of unauthorised deep fakes and hyper-realistic AI-generated videos.

These incidents have fuelled actors’ growing concern about the unregulated use of AI.

Meanwhile, top researchers, experts and CEOs (including Sam Altman of OpenAI) have issued a fresh warning about the existential threat artificial intelligence (AI) poses to humanity.

In a 22-word statement, they said that “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

The statement was published by US-based nonprofit, the Center for AI Safety, and was co-signed by Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis as well as Geoffrey Hinton and Youshua Bengio.