Sean Astin (current SAG-AFTRA president) attended CES 2026 with the intention of learning as much as possible about AI.
Some info from the article:
Diving this deep into the beating AI heart of CES was, in one way, to acknowledge its existence.
"There's a moment at which, well, I see things all of civilization needs to be paying attention to it. But my focus as a labor leader is to figure out the point at which it crosses over as an entertainment or as a business…and moves into our area where it affects our members and their name image and likeness and their – the things where we have jurisdiction over covering and so forth," explained Astin.
“We knew, when we were achieving certain language in our last agreement, which was foundational, new, novel stuff about different guardrails and things, that…it would be out of date,” he told me.
SAG-AFTRA and its members now face “a whole new array of challenges and dynamics,” said Astin.
To understand how to address those challenges and build into the next contract the necessary language and protections, Astin had to travel to CES in Las Vegas to understand the AI state of play.
He mentions in the article how this doesn't just affect big-name movie stars but also voice actors and background actors (extras).
“Within our contract, there's rules that a certain number of the background actors, for example, have to be hired within the union,…So if a digital replica is created, and it ends up fulfilling what would be 10 of those roles,” 10 human actors still have to be compensated in some way (like the contribution to their pension health plan).
This is depressing but, unfortunately, realistic:
“I think it's an absolute certainty that the workforce is going to be injured by this advancement in this technology.”
Posted by NewtRipley_1986