SAG-AFTRA reveals terms of ‘groundbreaking’ deal::Actors union SAG-AFTRA revealed specifics of its deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in a press conference Friday.
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Next: please protect voice actors and audiobook narrators.
Using AI to create voices and audiobooks sounds awesome though. I don’t like that people may lose their jobs. But using AI for this stuff seems like a natural progression. Having an audio book that shifts voices and tone easy but can also include sound effects and background noises would improve the audio. It would make these products better and likely cheaper. It would also give other creators a ton of ability to create their own stuff. Giving indie game developers tools to create games would be great.
Id love to have a tool to read books to me that can parse any book. Even something like a textbook. I learn much better by listening and no reader has been able to do that yet,but AI looks promising.
But the original voice actor, the one which was used as model for the AI voice should gain something from what is generated from his voice.
If they decide to put their voice as royalty free, fine, but if it is something who paid their bills by making recordings of their voice, not fine.
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I don’t mind different voices, but books with sound effects are hot trash. If I want to watch a movie, if watch a movie. Let my mind do the work.
I disagree. I loved listening to old time radio programs that added ambiance with creaking doors and wind to set scenes
Soundbooth Theater does “audio immersion” versions of some books and they are amazing. It is genre fiction, but if it they are your genres then you should check them out! (Horror, fantasy, sci-fi, etc)
Amen. If there are sound effects then I’m not interested. All of those audio presentations or whatever they are called sound so forced and over-acted.
If you haven’t listened to Project Hail Mary then I can understand your perspective. PHM works better as an audiobook than a regular book because of the “effects” in my opinion.
I’ve listened to that twice read by Ray Porter, who is my favorite audiobook narrator. I don’t remember there being any special effects in the book whatsoever on audible. The dude is just a master of different voices One of the reasons why he was so incredible in bobiverse.
Trying to avoid spoilers for others, but think about the other main character’s voice when they first meet.
“Having an audio book that shifts voices and tone easy but can also include background noises”
That’s not what you’re going to get. Even with A.I they all requires sound editing and reviewing and fixing errors which all costs money. We already have the tech to do A.I voice acting and I’ve tried a few. What we’ll get is what we have now, a single A.I voice with eerie intonation that modifies some words to their context but not others so it functions for a sentence but cannot emote a paragraph.
Are you saying that AI isn’t improving?
I just read someone that said they listened to an audio book that did do this.
No I’m saying that when we get a new game changing technology things don’t tend to become better produced, they become cheaper to produce cheaply and quality be damned
The thing is a lot of audiobooks aren’t being produced at all right now, or aren’t being produced to an acceptable quality standard (not because the narrator is bad, but because they and they editor weren’t paid enough to get it right.
In this case, I think cheaper production would result in better audiobooks.
I think game changing tech is always better but we as consumers are complicit in allowing the erosion of the benefit because were complacent.
Look at podcasts as an example. It beat the shit out of any other media at the time. Just hobbiest and funny people making content. Content that didn’t have any producers making sure people stayed on script. No ads, ever to interrupt or make creators panic about topics. Then rogan started pushing pocket pussies and everybody said its cool because its only 2 mins and skippable. Years later its now multiple unskippable ads on a paid service where we pay to avoid ads.
The only time we could have stopped the current problem is when it wasn’t a problem. But we don’t have that foresight
So game changing tech is great, if we keep it on track. Don’t let it erode.
Years later its now multiple unskippable ads on a paid service where we pay to avoid ads.
You must be listening to different podcasts to me. Those “hobbiest” content creators are still there, and they tend to have decent microphones now and have learned how to create fairly high production value content. Yes, they have ads, but they’re short and skippable (or even at the end of the episode) and you want them to get paid for their work right? Otherwise they won’t do it.
Sure, shitty podcasts are also available. Just don’t subscribe to them.
I don’t want them to get paid. I want people like me who are so passionate about a thing that they make stuff for the community.
What I don’t want are for those people to not bother creating things because the whole technology shifted towards profit motivations and the space and tech was taking over by the 1000th comedian who is leveraging a free advertising method to sell tickets and still ends up selling ad space like they’re a fender in NASCAR.
And no ads are not all skippable. No they’re not short, they interrupt, they infiltrate every corner of our lives and podcasts were popular early on because they were the exact opposite of what they are now. Now its just radio 2.0.
Fran —fucking— Drescher. The hero we didn’t know we needed.
Legend.
José also just finished a retrospective video about The Nanny, and credits her fight for SAG-AFTRA with giving him the inspiration for finally doing the video.
It will be out in a couple of days on YT, but it’s available on his Patreon already (and it’s a really good)
Thank you for this.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Actors union SAG-AFTRA revealed specifics of a new labor deal with Hollywood studios Friday that they said included groundbreaking raises, benefit increases and protections around artificial intelligence.
He said the contract includes $1 billion in new wages and benefit plan funding and a participation bonus for actors on successful streaming shows.
There are also “successful minimum compensation increases that break the so-called industry pattern and help our members keep up with the harm that’s been caused by inflation,” Crabtree-Ireland said.
Studios will have to provide informed consent for the creation of any kind of digital replica of a performer or background actor, with a specific description of the intended use, the union officials said.
The writers strike ended on September 27, making the time period between the tentative deal and ratification roughly two weeks.
Some writers were concerned about the growth of streaming, because they lost out on residuals that traditional television shows paid when they were re-run.
The original article contains 678 words, the summary contains 158 words. Saved 77%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
The tech angle are the AI provisions? Can someone provide some context for that? Doesn’t sound like much of a win for the little guy.
The short version is that an actor’s AI double, and an AI amalgam of several actors, will be treated as a proxy for the actor(s). The actor can agree or decline the use of their AI proxy based on the scene, and are compensated for use of their likeness as if they had gone in person. It’s a pretty big win for actors considering studios wanted unlimited usage for a one time payment.
Must be nice being famous. Get paid for the work of the CGI people (and stunt/body/etc. doubles?), as if you were also doing something. The stars at the top can probably negotiate even better terms on their own, So I guess that this is basically a win for the mid-level guys, who do have a somewhat valuable likeness but not the negotiating power to get a good price on their own.
ETA: What’s with the downvotes? Do you all disagree that the mid-level famous win from this or what?
Didn’t downvote you - but “mid-level” artists are generally paid well when the and stunt doubles are paid very well. The union terms are fair for content broadcast on cable TV and theatres.
They weren’t fair for content broadcast on streaming services - which was the main issue being negotiated here. And hopefully now that’s been fixed.
Yes. I am sure the somewhat famous are paid well. I don’t understand how this could explain why I am downvoted?
Longer explanation of why I wonder about doubles: One will probably use AI to make them look more like the real thing. IF this means that the “likeness owner” needs to be paid, then that becomes an extra cost factor. So the incentive will be to avoid this. This may mean that the doubles either lose employment opportunities or have to take a pay cut. The CGI artists obviously lose out in any case (not to mention the viewers).
ETA: Is the idea that doubles and CGI artists are overpaid relative to famous actors? Actually, at this point, I’m thinking it was just a troll with a bot and there’s nothing much wrong.
I imagine a somewhat valuable likeness will have someone “close enough” at a lower price in most cases. I would imagine that only the massively famous will benefit from this.
True, but I doubt there is a point in using a likeness if you can’t advertise it.
The tech angle are the AI provisions?
Not really.
Internet based content streaming has created new business models that didn’t fit the way artists are paid, which resulted in artists taking a massive pay cut while still being paid the full amount they were due under union rules.
It’s also bad for viewers - ever wonder why your favourite TV series didn’t get renewed for a new contract? A big part of it is if they did another season they’d have to pay the artists a lot more than they did for previous seasons. Because artist royalties scale up as the show gets more “successful” and creating another season is one of the yardsticks.
The AI stuff added complexity to the negotiations but it wasn’t really what all this was about.
It’s likely that background actors will get a boilerplate contract stating their likeness can be ai generated for other projects and current project for the use of background. Don’t sign it, you don’t get to do it.
Everyone else should be fairly good and protected from ai issues. At least until enough starving actors are willing to sign away their rights for a chance at a better casting in hopes of “making it big”
“There will also be requirements for intimacy coordinators for scenes requiring nudity or stimulated sex.”
“simulated sex” - CNN typo or SAG-AFTRA contract concessions?
I’m not really feeling this sex scene.
That’s ok, we have a stimulation coordinator for that.
Call the fluffer.
