Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1530033
W hen California Gov. Gavin Newsom stopped by SAG-AFTRA Plaza in mid-September, it was a significant milestone in the union's fight against the abuse of artificial intelligence technology. During the surprise visit, Newsom signed two important bills that were championed by the union: AB 2602 requires informed consent by performers prior to use of their digital replicas, the first bill of its kind in the United States. AB 1836 provides updated protections to the voice and likeness rights of deceased performers. SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher hosted Newsom for the bill-signing at the union's 5757 Wilshire headquarters in Los Angeles. "A.I. poses a threat not just to performers in the entertainment industry, but to workers in all fields, in all industries everywhere," she said. "No technology should be introduced into society without extreme caution and careful consideration of its long-term impact on humanity and the natural world." National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland added kudos for SAG-AFTRA Secretary-Treasurer Joely Fisher and SAG-AFTRA Vice President, Los Angeles and Los Angeles Local President Jodi Long, who worked to get the legislation passed. "Secretary-Treasurer Fisher's outreach to the governor's office advocating for the legislation was important in securing its ultimate approval," he said. "Vice President Long delivered compelling personal testimony in Sacramento at the California Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on AB 1836." The implications of A.I. and its effect on members' work are crucial issues for SAG-AFTRA as the union works to ensure that members' rights are safeguarded. A.I. was one of the top reasons for last year's TV/Theatrical/ Streaming strike, and it remains the central issue in the ongoing video game strike. EVOLUTION OF A.I. The technology has a longer history than you might expect, with the foundational research dating back to the 1940s and '50s. Early attempts at harnessing A.I. and machine learning technology had evocative names such as the Perceptron and Neocognitron that sound like they were ripped from a campy sci-fi movie. The Perceptron, developed in 1958 by a man named Frank Rosenblatt, may have been the first neural network. A five-ton IBM computer taught itself to distinguish between cards marked on the right and ones marked on the left. In the '60s, computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum developed ELIZA, an early chatbot that allowed users to converse in natural language and presented the illusion of a meaningful conversation. Another computer scientist, Kunihiko Fukushima, created the Neocognitron in 1979. It was able to learn patterns based on geometrical similarities. But it was the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022 that made the technology a buzzword in the media and in boardrooms, and the hype has been going strong ever since. As the capabilities of competing A.I. tools have grown rapidly, so has the potential for abuse. SHADY BUSINESS Scammers have been using generative A.I. to replicate a person's voice — some A.I. models can create a convincing duplicate using a sample only a few seconds long. With the cloned voice, they call that person's friends or loved ones with a story of a car crash, arrest or some other emergency, and say they need money immediately. When it comes to misusing A.I., the potential is limitless, from producing nonconsensual sexual images and incendiary political pictures to generating phishing emails. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs into law two important pieces of union-backed legislation at SAG-AFTRA Plaza in September. With him are, clockwise, SAG-AFTRA Secretary-Treasurer Joely Fisher, National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, and President Fran Drescher. sagaftra.org | Fall/Winter 2024 | SAG-AFTRA 59