The 2023 Hollywood actors’ strike ended when SAG-AFTRA suspended it at 12:01 a.m. on November 9 after reaching a tentative TV/Theatrical agreement with studios. The deal created consent, notice, compensation, and bargaining rules for specific uses of performers’ digital replicas and synthetic performers—but it did not ban AI or settle whether studios could train AI on covered work. Members ratified the agreement on December 5, 2023. That contract expired on June 30, 2026; a successor agreement began July 1, 2026, so the rules below describe the deal that ended the strike, not necessarily today’s contract.
How did the actors’ strike end?
SAG-AFTRA’s TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee unanimously approved a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The union suspended the strike at 12:01 a.m. on November 9, 2023, after 118 days on strike, according to union leadership. The agreement covered television, theatrical, and streaming production within the contract’s scope.
Suspension was not the same as ratification. The union’s members later approved the agreement on December 5, 2023, by 78.33% to 21.67%, with 38.15% turnout. It took effect retroactively on November 9, 2023, and ran through June 30, 2026. SAG-AFTRA described the deal as providing more than $1 billion in new compensation and benefit-plan funding. The ratification announcement also described the agreement’s broader compensation and benefit provisions.
The agreement covered theatrical motion pictures and scripted dramatic content for television and new media platforms; it was not a universal rulebook for every SAG-AFTRA contract or performer category. The union’s president, Fran Drescher, and chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, described the AI provisions as “For the first time, consent and compensation guardrails on the use of AI.”
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What did the 2023 agreement require for digital replicas?
The agreement did not establish one blanket rule for all AI-generated likenesses. Its requirements depended on how a replica was created, whose performance or identity it represented, and where and how it would be used. The union’s summary of the 2023 TV/Theatrical agreement distinguishes several categories.
Replicas created through a performer’s employment
An employment-based digital replica is created in connection with the performer’s employment, using the performer’s physical participation, to portray them in photography or soundtrack where they did not actually perform. Creating one required advance notice and consent.
Use in the production for which the replica was created generally required consent supported by a reasonably specific description of the intended use, subject to exceptions in the agreement. Using it in a different production required consent and separate bargaining, with compensation rules. Creation and later use were therefore distinct questions: agreeing to make a replica did not automatically settle every future use.
Replicas created independently of the performer’s employment
For a recognizable replica made without an employment arrangement with the performer for that production, consent and bargaining were required before use, along with a specific description. The agreement included exceptions for certain First Amendment-protected uses, including criticism, scholarship, satire, and parody, as well as some historical or biographical works.
Changes to an already recorded performance
Consent was generally required for covered digital alterations of a recorded performance, with the proposed alteration specifically described. The contract summary lists ordinary post-production exceptions, including cosmetics, continuity, effects, standards and practices, and certain dubbing or localization work. Those exceptions mean that not every digital adjustment to footage was treated as a new replica requiring the same consent process.
Background actors
The agreement addressed background-actor replicas separately, including notice, consent, and payment terms. It also limited the use of replicas to get around coverage maximums that would otherwise require the engagement of background actors. Those provisions were not simply the principal-performer rules applied without distinction.
How did the contract treat synthetic performers?
The agreement also covered digitally created performers who were not recognizable as a specific natural performer and were not voiced by a natural person. If a producer used such a synthetic performer in place of a human performer who otherwise would have been hired, the producer had to notify the union and provide an opportunity to bargain over appropriate consideration.
A separate rule addressed generating a synthetic performer using a specific performer’s name and a recognizable facial feature in a prompt. That scenario triggered consent and bargaining requirements. The distinction matters: a synthetic character with no identifiable performer was treated differently from one generated by invoking a specific performer’s identity.
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No. The 2023 agreement did not impose an outright ban on AI, and SAG-AFTRA’s AI FAQ explicitly said the union did not secure a ban on training AI on covered work in those negotiations. The union said it retained the right to argue that such training was prohibited by the agreement or other law, while describing the issue as legally complicated and subject to litigation. That was the union’s position at the time, not a definitive legal ruling or a statement of current law.
The union also explained that a total ban could have unintended consequences and that collective bargaining could not directly bind companies with which it had no bargaining relationship. Its approach was to negotiate defined protections around particular uses rather than claim that all AI use had been prohibited.
What else was included in the strike-ending deal?
AI was one part of a broader agreement on pay, benefits, and streaming compensation. The deal introduced a success payment for qualifying high-budget subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) seasons and longform pictures when first-90-day domestic viewing equaled at least 20% of domestic subscribers. It did not apply to every streaming production. SAG-AFTRA’s contract summary and ratification announcement describe the deal’s other compensation and benefit-fund changes.
The AMPTP, the studios’ negotiating association, also characterized the tentative agreement as including extensive consent and compensation protections around AI in its November 8, 2023 statement. That was the employer association’s description; the union’s contract summary provides the detailed categories and conditions.
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The 2023 agreement is now historical. Its term ended June 30, 2026, and SAG-AFTRA’s 2026 TV/Theatrical agreement runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2030. The 2023 provisions explain what the union and studios agreed to when the strike ended; they should not be assumed to describe the successor contract. For a current question about a particular production or use, consult the terms of the 2026 agreement and the applicable contract category.
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