Aaron Marcus warns actors about an AI service that generates training and corporate films without human talent, threatening non-union extras whose likenesses could be captured for perpetual use. Union actors are protected after the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, but non-union workers remain vulnerable. The voice-over strike that began in July 2024 continues over unresolved AI voice issues in video games.
I just saw this online and I, I just thought I got to share this with you. Watch out, this frightening ad will sabotage actors' careers. If you watch this to the end, I've got a great bonus video for you. Let me make sure I get the correct title for it. Actors absolutely need this in all emails sent. It is a great marketing tool. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. So I was online and something popped up, and this guy was talking about this great new program that— and it's for training films. And I've done some videos about training films if you're not 100% familiar with them. There are 3 different names: training films, corporate films, or educational films. All the same thing. I've done hundreds of these types of projects. As a matter of fact, and this is many years ago, I used to almost be able to make a living just from doing corporate films or training films. So like, for instance, if you are in a big box store and you're walking down an aisle and on a monitor it's showing somebody, I don't know, using some kind of cleaning product and, you know, mopping up the floor and And it does a great job. That is a training film. It could be a film— and I used to do a lot of government films for the military, for the Pentagon, for the CIA, the DIA. And I remember being flown to Chicago— well, it's actually outside of Chicago, I think it's called Great Lakes— to do a video about how to repair diesel engines. I don't know anything about diesel engines, but I'm really good at reading teleprompters. And so I was able to do it in a convincing way. So getting back to this ad that I saw, it was, hey, you don't have to hire actors anymore. Pick and choose the character that you want and just send and upload the text. And you've got your own training film. And I looked at this thing and I thought, this is frightening. I mean, this could cut a lot of actors out of work. Now, one of the reasons why we members of SAG-AFTRA went on strike in 2023 was because of AI, because some production companies wanted to be able to use our likeness in the future. As a matter of fact, now I don't know if this is being done for non-union talent. It cannot be done for union actors. But if you were working as an extra, this is what they were proposing and planning on doing before we went on strike, was to give you a full day's pay. And once again, that's going to vary depending on the project, where you are, It will be under $200 for— that's what you, you would get, less than that for an 8-hour day. And once again, there are some exceptions to the rules, so if you want to get the exact numbers, go to the sagaftra.org website. But for a pretty nominal fee, they will take an image of you and be able to use your image in perpetuity. It doesn't seem like it's worth getting paid $180 for and then have them be able to use you forever. So for non-union actors, I don't know whether that's being offered when you're doing extra work. But some of the scary things about AI— and by the way, let me just tell you, I use AI for things, and they can be used in really positive ways. It can be used in really positive ways. But, you know, they can capture a sound and change it a little bit and then be able to use it in other kinds of projects. It can be really pretty frightening, and you have to be very careful with this. On the positive side, they can also change your look. So if you are acting in a film and they need to age you, they need to make you look younger, that's possible. I guess I don't necessarily view that as such a positive thing because that also means there's another actor who might not get hired, someone who would play the older version of you or the younger version of you. But some people seem to think that that's a good thing. Now, for voiceover talent, especially the ones who are doing voiceovers for games, they're still on strike. And once again, I don't know when you're going to be watching this, but they have been on strike since July of 2024, and they haven't resolved some of the issues that they have with being able to use their voices in video games. So it's, it's kind of a— it's a tough thing. And look, personally, I don't think that AI is going to fully replace actors. I mean, we bring things to the table that I don't believe AI can. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe in the future I will be wrong. I certainly hope that's not the case. But anyhow, I just wanted to share that with you, make you very aware of the situation. And I'd love to hear You know, what, what are your thoughts about, about AI? Has it affected you in any way? Have you ever been offered to be paid to have your likeness captured and used in the, in the future, or your voice, things like that? So please share that with us. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, subscribe, click the notification bell so you always know when a new video has been uploaded. If you like it, give it a thumbs up because that's actually very helpful. And share the link with your fellow actors. I did promise a great bonus video for you. It— this really is an amazing tool that you should be using for certain emails that you send, especially ones where you need to make sure that somebody actually received it. And if you just look up here, you'll see the link. You can click on it. And let me know if you've ever used this tool. Or if you wind up using it, you can get a free version where you can use it. I can't remember, it's like 6, 8 times a month, 10 times a month, somewhere in that ballpark. So you don't have to actually pay for the service, but it's really, really helpful because a lot of times you send out emails, you don't know if anybody sees it, if it gets thrown into somebody's spam filter. So anyhow, you definitely want to watch this video. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
