Why a union deal on AI won’t save the day

(but it would be a huge help)

Most agents I work with are very keen for Equity and Pact to reach their first agreement on AI protections for performers working in film and TV.

And I get it.

The power of collective bargaining is difficult to replicate when you are negotiating one client, one contract and one project at a time, in particular when your client isn't one of the very small number of actors with enough individual bargaining power (or “star power”, if you like) to dictate their own terms.

Having the weight of a union behind you helps, a lot.

I contributed to the negotiations between Equity and Pact on AI. So, for obvious reasons, I can't say any more about what may or may not be in the agreement, where negotiations currently sit, or when an agreement might land.

(No scoop here, I'm afraid!)

What I can talk about is why I think agents should be very interested in union agreements on AI but absolutely shouldn't wait for one to come and save the day.

Because, even when we have one, you're still going to have some work to do.

Here are three reasons why.

1. AI moves faster than collective bargaining can

There is a trope that AI is moving so fast that regulation, contracts and safeguards simply can't keep up.

I don't buy that.

AI is moving quickly, yes. But not so quickly that we can't understand it, regulate it, contract around it or put sensible safeguards in place. We can, and we already do.

The issue is that AI technology can develop and be deployed faster than collective agreements can be negotiated.

A producer, brand or games company can introduce a new AI tool into its production process relatively quickly. Getting multiple parties, with different interests and priorities, to agree rules that may govern thousands of contracts and potentially years of work takes longer.

That's not a failure of collective bargaining. It's simply a difference in pace, because these are two entirely different ball games.

And that difference creates a gap.

While a union agreement is being negotiated, the work doesn't stop.

Contracts are still landing in inboxes. Actors are still being booked. Producers are still asking for rights. And broad, complicated (and sometimes downright confusing) AI language is still finding its way into contracts (the recent Hasbro positions on AI for the Peppa Pig franchise comes to mind).

So someone still needs to ask:

• Hang on. What exactly are you proposing to do with my client's performance, voice or face?

• Are you using AI?

• Are you creating a digital replica?

• Where does the material go afterwards?

• Who gets access to it?

• And what are you paying for all of this?

A collective agreement can make those conversations much easier. It can establish common language, minimum protections and a starting point for negotiation.

But you don't need to wait for one to start having those conversations now.

2. A union agreement gives you a floor. Your job is almost always to negotiate above it.

This isn't particularly new or revolutionary.

Agents already do this.

Collective agreements are incredibly valuable because they establish minimum standards of pay and protection.

But minimum is the operative word in that sentence.

A union minimum isn't necessarily the fee you want for your client. And a minimum contractual protection isn't necessarily where you want the negotiation to end.

The same applies to a union deal on AI.

Even if we woke up tomorrow morning to a brilliant collective agreement on AI, agents would still need to understand the deal sitting in front of them and decide whether the particular use being proposed needs something different, or better.

3. There won't necessarily be a union agreement everywhere your clients gets booked or encounters AI

This is the big one for me.

Actors don't only work in film and television (where the first UK union agreement on AI is most likely to drop).

They work in games. Advertising. Audiobooks. Vertical drama. And all sorts of other corners of the industry where AI is already turning up. Collective bargaining doesn't neatly cover all of them.

The places where your clients get booked (or AI is being used) aren't necessarily the places where you'll have a union AI agreement to fall back on.

If an AI job lands on your desk tomorrow in an area without a collective agreement, you still need to know what to do with it.

If your client wants to take the opportunity, “there isn't a union agreement yet” doesn't really answer the practical question.

• Can they do it safely?

• What exactly are they agreeing to?

• What should they be paid?

• What happens to their voice, face, performance or data afterwards?

• What needs changing in the contract before you can comfortably say yes?

That's the job.

And that's why I don't think waiting is a particularly good strategy.

And yet... I think you should absolutely study the union deals

My take, and advice to you on this one, looks slightly contradictory (or perhaps paradoxical) but bear with me (there is logic to my madness!).

I'm telling you not to wait for union agreements while also telling you that you should know what's in them.

Because SAG AFTRA in the US has now given us something incredibly useful: several years of actual bargaining over AI and actors' rights.

No blue-sky thinking, or theories. Not LinkedIn “hot takes” about what AI might do to acting in ten years' time, either.

Actual agreements.

SAG-AFTRA has had to grapple with questions around digital replicas, consent, compensation and different forms of AI use across different areas of performers' work.

Sure, those agreements don't apply to your UK contracts. And they're informed by UK law.

They're not something I would suggest you copy and paste into your next contract and hope for the best.

But they do give you a rather useful blueprint for thinking through AI protections and structuring AI deals in the UK context.

They tell you which questions sophisticated negotiators have already had to answer.

They give you language for different types of AI use.

They show you where lines have been drawn around consent, use and pay.

And they show you what performers have been able to negotiate when they have considerable collective bargaining power behind them.

There is another interesting wrinkle here too.

The big SAG-AFTRA collective agreements are the ones everybody talks about.

But they aren't necessarily the only ones UK agents should be looking at.

Some of the smaller agreements SAG-AFTRA has negotiated with individual companies are, in some respects, closer to the kind of deal an agent might actually find themselves looking at: one company, a particular technology, a defined use and contractual protections built around it. (I’ll say more about those different types of agreements in another article!)

And that, I think, is where things get particularly interesting.

Because you're no longer studying SAG AFTRA agreements simply because it's good to “keep up with AI”.

You're studying how other people have solved the negotiation problem you're facing.

You won't be able to lift the answer wholesale. The US and UK have different laws, different industry structures and different bargaining landscapes.

And, as I said earlier, because I contributed to the Equity/Pact negotiations, I'm not going to speculate about how those negotiations will ultimately translate any of this into the UK.

But you can still learn from what has already been negotiated.

You can learn the vocabulary.

You can understand why particular protections exist.

You can see different ways of structuring consent, use and remuneration.

And perhaps most importantly, you don't have to start every AI negotiation from a completely blank sheet of paper.

So no, I don't think agents should sit tight and wait for a union agreement to save the day.

I think you should do almost the opposite.

Learn from the deals. Don't wait for the deals.

Get informed. Ask questions. Understand what is being proposed.

And then get negotiating.

Want to know what's actually in the US union deals?

I'm running a live webinar for actors' agents where I'll unpack the AI agreements negotiated by SAG-AFTRA so far. I’ll give you a digest and highlight what I think UK agents can usefully learn from them.

We'll look at the big SAG-AFTRA agreements you've probably heard about, some of the lesser-known agreements you may not have, and what they tell us about the evolving landscape of AI, contracts and performer protection.

You don't need to become an expert in US collective bargaining.

But if you're negotiating actors' contracts in the UK, I think it's worth knowing what some of the strongest negotiators in the industry have already managed to put on paper.

Join me for the webinar → Webinar: Union deals on AI for actors: where are we now?