SAG-AFTRA
The principal US labour union representing performers across film, television, radio, and streaming media.
Last refreshed: 29 March 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Can a union price AI actors out of Hollywood before studios price out humans?
Latest on SAG-AFTRA
- What is SAG-AFTRA?
- The Screen Actors Guild; American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, representing roughly 160,000 US performers across film, television, radio, and streaming. Formed in 2012 from the merger of SAG and AFTRA.
- What is the SAG-AFTRA Tilly Tax?
- A proposed royalty on AI-generated performers that would make synthetic actors cost the same or more than real ones. Revenue would fund SAG-AFTRA healthcare and pension funds. It is being negotiated in the 2026 AMPTP contract talks.Source: SAG-AFTRA
- What is the difference between the Tilly Tax and the robot tax?
- The Tilly Tax is a sector-specific royalty pricing synthetic performers at parity with humans in entertainment. The robot tax is Bernie Sanders' proposed federal per-position levy across all industries. Both aim to remove AI's cost advantage but operate at different scales.Source: event
- How long was the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023?
- 118 days, from 14 July to 9 November 2023. It was the longest strike in the union's history. The settlement included consent requirements and basic guardrails on AI-generated likenesses.
- Can studios replace actors with AI?
- Current SAG-AFTRA contracts require performer consent before studios can create AI replicas of their likeness. The 2026 Tilly Tax proposal would add a financial deterrent by pricing synthetic performers at or above human rates.Source: SAG-AFTRA
Background
The Screen Actors Guild; American Federation of Television and Radio Artists represents roughly 160,000 performers across film, television, radio, and streaming. Formed in 2012 by the merger of SAG (founded 1933) and AFTRA (founded 1952), it ran a 118-day strike against the AMPTP in 2023, winning consent requirements and basic guardrails on AI-generated likenesses.
SAG-AFTRA is negotiating a Tilly Tax in its 2026 AMPTP contract talks: a royalty on AI-generated performers that would make synthetic actors cost the same or more than real ones, with revenue bolstering union healthcare and pension funds . The proposal has become a reference point in the broader robot tax debate as a sector-specific alternative to federal legislation.
The 2023 AI provisions are now the floor, not the ceiling. With synthesis tools capable of generating photorealistic performers at near-zero marginal cost, the Tilly Tax is the union's structural answer: price synthetic labour high enough that it cannot undercut human work. If it succeeds, it becomes a template for every sector where AI can replicate individual output.