AI-generated editorial illustration; not a documentary photograph.
Hollywood’s major labor unions are urging policymakers and the public to focus on AI harms already affecting workers rather than allowing warnings about human extinction to dominate the debate. In a September 18, 2026 report, The Verge said SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America East emphasized enforceable workplace protections and government regulation, while studios contacted for comment did not respond.
Guardrails for Digital Replicas
SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said the union recognized early that generative AI could threaten performers’ livelihoods. Its agreements with major US entertainment employers require studios to obtain permission and compensate actors when using AI-generated replicas. Those provisions do not directly cover model developers such as OpenAI, Anthropic or Google.
Crabtree-Ireland argued that establishing these contractual principles reduced the economic incentive to replace human performances with digital copies. He also described some extinction-level warnings as potentially overstated, while acknowledging that concerns raised by former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon deserved attention.
Writers Demand Regulation
WGAE executive director Sam Wheeler said collective bargaining had secured meaningful protections for writers, including safeguards negotiated after the Writers Guild’s 148-day strike in 2023. He maintained that labor contracts cannot substitute for government oversight and pointed to state-level regulation in New York as an important response to limited federal action.
The WGAE identified worker disempowerment, online degradation, disinformation and rising energy costs as immediate harms associated with AI. Its position is that companies and executives should be held accountable for consequences arising from how their products are developed and deployed.
Studios Offer No Response
The Verge contacted Disney, Netflix, Amazon, Lionsgate and other studios and entertainment-focused AI startups about the latest catastrophic-risk warnings but received no responses. The report notes that production tools used to create digital performers or emulate filmmaking processes differ from the frontier systems behind recent safety warnings, even though they can still threaten entertainment jobs.
Source: What Hollywood thinks about existential AI warnings
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