Hollywood was well and truly brought to a standstill as the union representing around 160,000 actors declared a strike, joining the screenwriters who walked out in May. Both unions seek revised contracts and concessions from Hollywood's biggest studios in light of the streaming era, artificial intelligence, and other growing concerns in the industry.

The strike pits the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), along with their friends at the Writers Guild of America (WGA), against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the trade association that represents major studios and streamers.

As with most labor strikes, much of the dispute centers around compensation. The industry has largely shifted toward streaming and away from the classic television model, while the rights under existing union-approved contracts have been slow to adjust.

Historically, actors on a popular show would be entitled to regular, sizable checks so long as the show (or film) continued airing. Actors rely on these “residuals” checks to eke out a living between gigs. Residuals often continue for years after a show’s end, especially if a show is syndicated to other networks.

According to SAG-AFTRA, the move to streaming has drastically reduced the size of those checks, to the point where even actors on major shows are struggling to get by. In a press conference announcing the strike, SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland stated that streaming has “undercut performers’ residual income and high inflation has further reduced our members’ ability to make ends meet.” The union seeks increased pay and a revised model for residuals to account for the realities of the modern industry, as well as adjustments to other forms of compensation and benefits.

The dispute is complicated by the nature of the industry; it’s not simply one side asking for higher wages and healthcare. Residuals are based on a number of factors, including how often a show airs or a DVD copy is sold. When a show is on a streaming platform like Netflix, however, it’s not technically “airing” over and over again. It’s just available to view.

Among other points in dispute, SAG-AFTRA suggested that a third-party company be appointed to measure the success of streaming shows based on viewership and other data. Streaming platforms, however, jealously guard data regarding how well a show is performing. AMPTP companies have argued that many streamers are still not yet profitable and that revealing such data could hurt the business model.

Speaking to the online Hollywood news site Deadline, Crabtree-Ireland has since explained that the union is “more focused on sharing the revenue of the streamers, rather than focusing on specific projects, because obviously there’s a lot of factors that go into this,” and that they are “not talking about profit-share, we’re talking about revenue share.”

Residuals are not the only issue at bar. Actors, writers, and other creatives are extremely wary of the growing use of artificial intelligence. Performers are deeply concerned that AI could be used to appropriate their likenesses without their knowledge or consent, and may be used to replace them entirely.

Actors are often already called upon to sign away the rights to their voice and likeness so that studios can use them for amusement parks, video games, or promotional materials. Performers worry that it’s a short step from there for a studio to simply feed the footage they’ve collected already into an AI platform, which could then repurpose that footage into new projects without offering the performer any additional compensation or choice in the matter.

AI technology is rapidly making that reality possible. Many voice actors, for example, have already come across AI-generated “voice clones” of themselves on projects in which they took no part.

Actors and writers are seeking protection from the misuse of their own images and work product via AI, as well as guarantees against AI-generated content usurping their roles more broadly.

In one notable exchange, AMPTP claimed that it had presented SAG-AFTRA with “a groundbreaking AI proposal which protects performers’ digital likenesses, including a requirement for performer’s consent for the creation and use of digital replicas or for digital alterations of a performance.”

During Thursday’s press conference, Crabtree-Ireland replied that the “‘groundbreaking’ AI proposal that they gave us yesterday” amounted to suggesting that “our background performers should be able to be scanned and get paid for one day’s pay and their companies should own that scanned image, their likeness to be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation.” “If you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal,” Crabtree-Ireland added, “I suggest you think again.”

It remains to be seen how long the strike will continue. Hollywood writers have already been picketing for over two months and may gain renewed steam as they are joined by their compatriots in the actors’ union.