Hollywood actors’ union SAG-AFTRA has inked a deal with artificial intelligence ads marketplace Narrativ, offering union members the ability to license their digital voice likeness through the platform.
Under the new pact, union performers who wish to offer their digital audio replicas on Narrativ can set their own wage rates, as long as they meet or exceed the union’s commercials minimum rate. Performers signal what kind of ads they want their voices to appear in and can greenlight or deny offers for those commercials that come their way. For every use of a performer’s voice in an ad, the actor must consent to that use.
The union announced the agreement on Wednesday after its Commercials Contracts Standing Committee and National Executive Committee approved the language. “Not all members will be interested in taking advantage of the opportunities that licensing their digital voice replicas might offer, and that’s understandable. But for those who do, you now have a safe option,” the union’s national executive director, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, said in a statement. “Narrativ has agreed to our terms, and its platform is an excellent example of how A.I. can be ethically used, by putting compensation, informed consent and control in the hands of individual performers.”
The Narrativ agreement will generate union health and pension contributions, SAG-AFTRA added, which according to its announcement “support the long term financial security of the plans.”
Narrativ co-founder Ben Gottdiener said in a statement that AI allows marketers to “deliver the right message, using a voice that will resonate with the right person, at the right place and time.” He added that “ethical A.I. use doesn’t invalidate that vision. It strengthens it. By ensuring that every person involved in the creation of that message is informed about what it contains, consents to its use and is compensated fairly, we make that vision sustainable, repeatable and real.”
As interest in AI has snowballed in the last year, SAG-AFTRA has produced multiple audio agreements to allow members to generate income off of the technology in a regulated fashion. In January the union, which represents some 160,000 performers, announced a deal with AI voice technology company Replica Studios, a firm that works with major video game labels. In June, the union debuted a waiver addressing personalized AI audio commercials, allowing members to work on dynamic ads with signatories of SAG-AFTRA’s Audio Commercials Contract.
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