Artificial intelligence can be used as a tool with relatively few restrictions, according to the agreement reached last week between the major studios and the film crew union.
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees released further details of its contract over the weekend. The deal stipulates that workers can ask their employers for a “consultation” on the use of AI, that a committee will be set up to provide training on AI skills, and that the use of AI cannot be outsourced to non-union workers.
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To make the “tool” analogy clear, the agreement provides that if the employee uses its own AI system, it can charge a “kit rental fee” – the same fee it would charge for sound recording equipment or other equipment owned by the employee.
However, the terms do not provide for severance pay for workers who lose their jobs because of AI. The contract provides relatively narrow protection in this regard by providing that no worker will be forced to enter prompts that displace other union members.
The role of AI was a major theme of the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year. In the end, both unions reached agreements that give writers control over their AI use and guarantee that AI use will be compensated.
The IATSE has slightly different terms, in part because the union negotiates on behalf of a wide range of professions, from hairdressers and sound assistants to editors and cameramen.
The terms provide protections consistent with the SAG-AFTRA agreement: IATSE employees must separately consent to any AI scanning, and scanning may not be a condition of employment.
The union will hold a series of town hall meetings with its members to answer questions before the ratification vote.
Since talks began nearly four months ago, the union has made it clear that it sees AI as a tool with potential benefits for workers.
“Sometimes new technology creates new jobs,” said Matt Loeb, the union’s international president diversity in February. “I hope that some of the efficiencies and/or benefits of AI will also benefit the crews.”
Under the agreement, employers reserve the right to prohibit their employees from using AI in their work. If they allow the use of AI, employers will indemnify employees from legal liability, except in cases of “gross negligence or willful misconduct.”
The agreement also calls for quarterly meetings with individual employers to discuss AI and semi-annual meetings with the studio group as needed.
The terms of the AI agreement were already settled long before negotiations ended last Tuesday. The last items to be resolved were the funding of the benefit plans and general wage increases.
The union was able to negotiate a 7% increase in the first year, followed by increases of 4% and 3.5%. And health and pension funds will benefit from new streaming balances. In total, employers agreed to increase funding for the plans by more than $700 million to make up for a significant shortfall created by the pandemic and the two strikes.
The agreement does not include any increase in health care costs for employees or their dependents and no reduction in health insurance benefits, the union said in its summary of the terms.
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