“We are in a race against time to develop policy and regulatory frameworks that protect actors’ rights to their own image and likeness,” professional actor and Chair of the South African Guild of Actors (SAGA) Jack Devnarain warned the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR).

Devnarain recently presented the concerns of the acting fraternity on the Impact of A.I. on Performer’s Rights to the UN agency saying that Generative AI “was a different game player, as it can generate new, realistic content, for the first time”.

“The reason actors have serious cause for concern is that Generative AI can be trained on a performer’s voice and likeness to create a digital replica or an entirely synthetic performance. This is affecting performers around the world right now, often without their consent, and without compensation. Such misuse of AI will only become more prevalent as the technology becomes more accessible. It is already being used in film, TV, voice work, and on social media.”

AI can already generate synthetic voices, in multiple languages, dialects and accents, that are incredibly realistic. It is only a matter of time before it can be trained to generate hyper-real performer replicas or synthetic performers that may be used at will, he said.

“To some, this synthetic content is pure entertainment, but for actors, it presents an existential threat that displaces human creativity.”

Devnarain said that from an actor’s point of view, this threat can be mitigated as long as any digital replication of a performer, and the use thereof, is based on their fully informed consent; and fair compensation.

“It is critical to build robust contractual and legal protections at national and international level so that actors should not have to compete for work against digital versions of themselves or, even worse, against fully synthetic performances. These legal protections must include protection of the actor’s voice, image, likeness, and other personal features, which at present lack protections in many countries, including in South Africa, the SAGA chair said.

“Our country’s failure to introduce regulation of our creative sector, either through legislation or collective bargaining rights, has left actors helplessly exposed to unfair exploitation. We are already seeing one-sided contracts where producers unilaterally award themselves a right to scan the actor’s voice, image and likeness for the creation of a digital replica, for the producer’s exclusive use in perpetuity, and with no further compensation to the actor.

“Having no recourse against this violation of the actor’s personality rights, the threat of generative AI in South Africa is the nightmare scenario we all dreaded.”

Devnarain said they remained hopeful that more countries can harmonise their national legislation with the WIPO Beijing Treaty which protects performers’ rights in audio-visual performances.

“The Moral Rights articulated in the treaty should be understood to limit the use of AI for replication without consent, where post-production adjustments stray beyond traditional editing of the actor’s performance.”

He applauded WIPO’s efforts to confront and interrogate the adoption of AI in the audio-visual industry. “Our task is to distinguish the use of AI from its misuse. Of course the road ahead is not an easy one, but if it takes great human endeavour to produce a noteworthy performance, and to create AI, then we can surely muster a great human endeavour to regulate it.”

WATCH THE PRESENTATION HERE: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eLjMjD1r_OKkAK9UyskKrNCiE-5slO9Z/view?t=31

*What do you think of the impact of A.I. on the film industry? Send your thoughts to in**@fi*****.za