Hollywood Studios and Actors’ Union Find Common Ground on AI

SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland attributed the mostly drama-free agreements with studios during this round of negotiations to a new mindset. (AFP)

09:53-30 May 2026 AD ـ 14 Thul-Hijjah 1447 AH

SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland attributed the mostly drama-free agreements with studios during this round of negotiations to a new mindset. (AFP)

As Hollywood's performers cast their ballots to approve the latest negotiated contract, union leaders say they have made some progress in conversations with studio bosses since the massive strike in 2023, especially when it comes to concerns about artificial intelligence.

SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland attributed the mostly drama-free agreements in this round of negotiations to a new mindset, "because the studios and streamers came to the table with a different perspective."

With 160,000 members working in film, television and video games, SAG-AFTRA is the largest and most influential union of its kind globally.

Members of the actors' union are voting on a newly negotiated agreement that was approved by the national board earlier this month, ahead of the current contract's expiration at the end of June.

"The tone of the negotiation was much more collaborative and a lot more creativity was brought by both sides, so I really believe that the 2023 strikes -- while they were very difficult for all of us -- did help effectuate a reset in the relationship between the studios and the unions in general," Crabtree-Ireland told AFP.

Approval would mean avoiding a repeat of disastrous 2023 strikes that shuttered productions, costing studios billions of dollars, while actors stood their ground against AI and other issues.

- AI's evolutions -

The strike by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) lasted 118 days, with star-studded picket lines outside major studios in Los Angeles and New York, marking the longest such revolt in Hollywood history.

AI technology was a sticking point for many, and that tension persists, Crabtree-Ireland said.

"They do feel more secure than they did in 2023 but there's still a very, very strong concern about AI -- and especially because the generative AI tools have advanced so much in the last three years," he said.

The latest agreement does not close the door on AI, but it does introduce new protections.

Under the new contract, digital replicas -- which use AI or any technology to replicate an actual living or deceased performer -- must "have informed consent and fair compensation," Crabtree-Ireland said.

The contract allows for limited use of synthetics, under "unusual circumstances," when a generative AI system can be used to create a character who is not based on any actual person in the world.

"There's now process in place which would require the companies to come to the union if they want to use a synthetic in a project, they have to demonstrate to us that this synthetic brings a significant additional value to the production," Crabtree-Ireland said.

"While this doesn't rise quite to the level of a complete prohibition, it's a very strong disincentive."

Voting on the latest contract closes June 4.

Celine Dion is Back in Paris, but Her First Song Remains 'a Big Secret'

Grammy-winning star Celine Dion - File photo/Reuters

Asharq Al Awsat

15:40-28 August 2026 AD ـ 15 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

15:40-28 August 2026 AD ـ 15 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

Celine Dion is Back in Paris, but Her First Song Remains 'a Big Secret'

Grammy-winning star Celine Dion - File photo/Reuters

Celine Dion blew kisses and made a love-heart shape with her hands as she swept into Paris on Friday for her first series of concerts since revealing her diagnosis with stiff-person syndrome.

Fans yelling “We're so happy to see you” and “We love you” crowded with journalists outside a Paris hotel as the Grammy-winning star settled in to prepare her residency of 16 shows in September and October at the Plenitude Arena in the French capital's western suburbs. The first show opens on Sept. 12.

“I am ready and I’m a bit uptight of course because it’s been a long time,” she told French broadcaster BFMTV, wearing a beige trench coat, high heels and dark shades, The AP news reported.

“I have always felt supported from the first day and because it’s a story that continues. It’s true that this is my second home,” the Quebec-born singer said.

Asked which song she'd sing first, Dion replied: “I can't say, it's a big secret!”

The Paris concerts, to be followed by 10 more next May, mark a major milestone for 58-year-old Dion after years away from touring due to the rare neurological disorder she disclosed in 2022.

With nearly 260 million albums sold worldwide, Dion remains one of the bestselling and most decorated artists in pop music history, known for hits including “My Heart Will Go On” and “Because You Loved Me.”

The concert series, titled “Celine Dion Paris 2026-2027,” will feature her catalog of hits in English and French.

Dion has largely stepped back from performing since canceling her Courage World Tour as her condition progressed. She wowed with a brief but widely watched return at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in 2024, singing “Hymne à l’amour” (Hymn to love) atop the Eiffel Tower in the rain.

The Plenitude Arena has a capacity of 40,000 spectators and was one of the venues used for the Paris Games.

Entertainment

Detective in Tupac Case Says He Could Not Verify That Defendant Participated in Rapper’s Shooting

Former Las Vegas Metro Police detective Dan Long testifies in court during the Duane Davis trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)

09:31-28 August 2026 AD ـ 15 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

Detective in Tupac Case Says He Could Not Verify That Defendant Participated in Rapper’s Shooting

A former Las Vegas police detective told jurors on Thursday he could not corroborate the story of an ex-gang leader who said he was involved in the drive-by killing of Tupac Shakur but now denies being responsible for the shooting.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, is charged in Nevada's Clark County with a single count of murder using a deadly weapon. He has pleaded not guilty. Davis is accused of leading a group of men to kill Shakur, 25, who was one of rap's most commercially successful and influential artists, in ‌a drive-by shooting ‌near the Las Vegas Strip.

The case rests almost entirely on ‌Davis' ⁠public and private statements ⁠that he was in the car with Shakur's killer and passed him the gun. Davis' lawyer, Michael Sanft, told jurors during opening statements these statements were mere bravado and could not be backed up with evidence.

On Thursday, Sanft called to the stand a former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department homicide detective who interviewed Davis in 2009. Dan Long said he believed what Davis said but conceded he could not verify his statements.

"I ⁠wasn't able to verify any of that," Long said.

Sanft rested ‌his case on Thursday and Davis did ‌not testify. Closing arguments are set for Monday.

The defense’s strategy rests on impugning Davis’ credibility while ‌convincing jurors that his stories were mere bravado. It is a risky strategy, ‌but Davis’ self-incrimination leaves him little choice.

Over the past two weeks, prosecutors from the Clark County District Attorney’s Office played hours of recordings for jurors, including public interviews and secret meetings with investigators, where Davis said he was enraged after Shakur and his entourage beat up Davis’ nephew ‌at a Las Vegas casino on September 7, 1996.

Davis and three other men including his nephew went looking for Shakur and ⁠his record producer ⁠Marion “Suge” Knight in a white Cadillac on the night of the beating, he said. Davis said he passed a gun to the backseat, and when they found Knight and Shakur’s car, one of the two men in the back opened fire.

Prosecutors have not named the shooter, and the three other men in the car have since died. Under Nevada law, Davis can be charged with murder even though he did not pull the trigger.

Davis was a leader of the Southside Compton Crips, a Los Angeles-area street gang that feuded with rival gang Mob Piru, which was associated with Shakur and his record label Death Row Records.

Shakur's killing in 1996 became a seminal moment in rap history and heightened hip-hop culture's violent image during “gangsta” rap’s heyday, an era defined by feuding between East and West Coast artists.

Entertainment

‘End of an Era’: Players Lament Decline of the Disc at Gamescom

Trade fair visitors are seen at the Gamescom gaming convention in Cologne, Germany, 27 August 2026. (EPA)

09:22-28 August 2026 AD ـ 15 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1448 AH

‘End of an Era’: Players Lament Decline of the Disc at Gamescom

Trade fair visitors are seen at the Gamescom gaming convention in Cologne, Germany, 27 August 2026. (EPA)

Some video game fans are flabbergasted at Sony's decision to discontinue disc sales from 2028 at Germany's Gamescom trade show -- leading to calls for a boycott.

"It's a bad decision," British developer Chris Bastin, 34, told AFP. "It's the end of an era. I wish it wasn't."

While Sony's announcement in early July to stop releasing games on discs came as a bombshell for gamers, the economics of the industry meant the decision was long in the making, Joost van Dreunen, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, told AFP.

"Digital distribution has been a replacement very much of physical carriers for the last 10 years," he said, with online stores replacing the discs once associated with the Xbox and PlayStation or the cartridges for some of Nintendo's consoles.

"Retail usually historically costs 20 to 30 percent of total margin on the sale of a single disc," Dreunen said, as stores take a cut of any sale. "By distributing it digitally through their own network and their own servers, they save a huge amount of margin."

Digital downloads accounted for nearly 82 percent of game sales on the PS4 and PS5 at the start of 2026, Sony said in late July.

The Japanese giant helped popularize console discs in the 1990s after launching its first PlayStation.

- 'Sentimental value' -

The shift has caused uproar among some who fear that losing access to a physical copy makes gamers dependent on the goodwill of service providers, who may or may not maintain players' digital accounts into the future.

"They don't go digital to pass on savings to the consumer," Clemens Istel, a spokesman calling for the boycott, told AFP.

"They go digital to make more profit. And there is zero indication that the customer will benefit from this."

In its 2025 report, French industry gaming group SELL found that while physical sales had fallen to 11 percent of the country's market, big titles like "EA Sports FC 26" and "Assassin's Creed Shadows" nevertheless sold hundreds of thousands of physical copies.

Thomas Bachellerie, who used to manage a games shop in Lyon, warned that second-hand sales sometimes made up almost a third of stores' turnover -- a problem since digital games "cannot be resold or lent".

For some, simple nostalgia plays a role.

"I have the 'Oblivion Collector's Edition' that I bought when I was a teenager, early teenager," Australian civil servant Scott Whiting told AFP at the fair, referring to the critically acclaimed fourth instalment in the best-selling "The Elder Scrolls" role-playing franchise.

"I still, I've moved 10 times since I bought it and I still carry that case around," he said.

"It still means something to me," he added. "There's emotional value in it, sentimental value, and I still look at games that I bought 20 years ago."

- Monopoly? -

Due for release on November 19, the highly anticipated "Grand Theft Auto VI" has also drawn criticism because its physical game box contains only a download code.

"That's a very bad sign," Bachellerie said. "GTA is a game that is supposed to keep us going for 10 years. For a shop, there is almost no point in selling it anymore."

But whatever some gamers might think, Geoffray Brunaux, a lawyer specializing in digital law, told AFP that holders of a physical game did not own it any more than those with a digital copy.

"Whether it is physical or digital, you never actually own the game," he said.

Gamers buy licenses to play the game -- licenses that can be withdrawn.

Consumer movements have sought to stop publishers pulling the plug on games they decide are no longer worth keeping online.

In January, the European Commission took receipt of the "Stop Destroying Videogames" petition, signed by almost 1.3 million people, after high-profile instances of games being switched off.

But anti-trust law can come in handy for gamers, Brunaux said.

The Dutch Stichting Massaschade & Consument consumer group is suing Sony for forcing PlayStation owners to buy from the PlayStation Store, alleging monopolistic practices that drive up the price of digital goods.

Hollywood Studios and Actors’ Union Find Common Ground on AI

Most Viewed

Celine Dion is Back in Paris, but Her First Song Remains 'a Big Secret'

Detective in Tupac Case Says He Could Not Verify That Defendant Participated in Rapper’s Shooting

‘End of an Era’: Players Lament Decline of the Disc at Gamescom

لم تشترك بعد