Actress Justine Bateman is blasting the Hollywood actors’ union over its new provisional contract that is expected to allow striking performers to return to work in a matter of days. Her objection: the contract doesn’t adequately protect actors from the inevitable encroachment of artificial intelligence technology.
Justin Bateman appeared Friday on MSNBC where she spoke with host Ali Velshi.
She said that actors should OK the deal only “if they don’t want to work anymore. Sure. If they want to be replaced by synthetic objects that are made by generative AI, why not?”
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She said studio executives “are choosing to no longer be in the film and series business.”
“I think they sort of like to think of themselves as being tech barons themselves or something. But this, doing projects that don’t involve humans — you’re not in the film business anymore,” she added. “People who don’t want to have any human involved have never really been on a set. They don’t know what it’s like to make a film.”
SAG-AFTRA members are set to vote on the new contract on Tuesday. Actors walked off the job in July in a dispute over streaming compensation as well as a host of other issues, including AI.
The exact nature of the contract’s provisions concerning AI remains unclear since guild leaders haven’t made details public.
In recent years, Justine Bateman has emerged as a vocal opponent to Hollywood’s embrace of AI. The Family Ties actress and sister of star Jason Bateman earned a degree in computer science and digital media management and has branched out into directing.
As Breitbart News reported, studio mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg recently opined that AI will result in the elimination of the vast majority of animation jobs in Hollywood in just three years.
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