Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1367665
60 SAG-AFTRA | Spring 2021 | sagaftra.org new influencer agreement (see page 58). The common thread throughout was the importance of the dignity of workers, and ensuring that technology improves people's lives, rather than just serve as a new means of exploitation. In his keynote remarks, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director David White underscored this element. "Technological change can be profoundly good for us. But that change can also bring profound misery and many bad things to our life. Changes must have balance and countervailing forces. This is where unions come in the picture. We serve as the watchdogs and protectors. We help to balance things out for working people who can otherwise be crushed by the changes," he said. Other labor and tech leaders participating in the daylong conference included SAG-AFTRA Executive Vice President Rebecca Damon; AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler; Jeff Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism; and Tristan Harris, co-founder and president of the Center for Humane Technology, who starred in Netflix's The Social Dilemma. Also featured were discussions that examined the ethics of emerging technologies such as volumetric video, a new innovation in motion capture technology, and deepfakes, with a focus on the best way the industry can utilize innovations without harming workers. SAG-AFTRA Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel Duncan Crabtree- Ireland spoke about the importance of the union being involved with emerging technology so that it can serve workers rather than harm them. "The right way to approach new technology is not to fight it," he said. "The key is for us to understand it and for us to adapt to it so that the human element is retained." Watch the summit at sagaftra.org/videos. Click on the "Technology" tab. For a presentation on volumetric video, SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris takes part in a demonstration at Mobile Motion Mocap studios in Glendale, California. Clockwise from upper left, voiceover performers David Errigo Jr. and Xander Mobus, ASL translator Nicole Pancino and voiceover performer Sarah Elmaleh on the From Gaming to Dubbing: What's Hot in VO panel. Click to Watch Click to Watch