Hollywood workers want to get back to their jobs, and the news that IATSE and AMPTP reached a tentative deal on a new Basic Agreement was welcomed with the hope that production could begin to pick up while alleviating worries of the potential for another strike.
Still, the full terms of the agreement have not yet been disclosed, and a ratification vote has yet to take place — meaning there’s still plenty of uncertainty surrounding what is in the provisional contract, including the thorny subject of AI, which has hit an inflection point.
In a memo sent to guild members on Tuesday night, IATSE offered only that the tentative deal includes “language that ensures no employee is required to provide AI prompts in any manner that would result in the displacement of any covered employee,” and “these changes in the Basic Agreement are in addition to the tentative agreements reached in the Local Agreement negotiations.”
AI guardrails were just one of the topics discussed during a Variety VIP+ webinar held on Tuesday, hours before the announcement of the deal (replay the event by clicking above), with Variety senior media reporter Gene Maddaus noting, “There’s language in the contract already that says if you, the worker, are put out of work by some technological change … then you are entitled to severance and you’re entitled to retraining. So you could see that principle being applied in the AI context.”
But he added, “I think that’s sort of the framework that they’re starting from … Where they ended up, I’m not certain.”
The potential for job loss due to AI has caused plenty of unease. A March 2024 NRG survey of creative professionals (not limited to IATSE members) found 54% believe AI will lead to fewer job opportunities, while just 17% expect it will lead to more opportunities.
Some IATSE members have expressed concern that the potential to reduce or eliminate assistants has additional ramifications — for instance, possibly removing the opportunity for top creative talent to train and mentor the next generation of filmmakers.
The Basic Agreement covers roughly 50,000 entertainment workers, including cinematographers, editors, art directors and costume designers. A summary of the tentative deal is expected to be released in the coming days, with a Memorandum of Agreement in the coming weeks. A ratification vote hasn’t yet been scheduled, and the current contract is set to expire July 31.
One thing is certain: AI has arrived, and Hollywood must learn to co-exist with it. At a March rally, IATSE international president Matthew Loeb looked to AI for its potential efficiencies, asserting, “we want some of the spoils of artificial intelligence.”
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