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

SAG-AFTRA's 2026 contract negotiations with AMPTP resumed on 28 April under a full media blackout, with National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland holding firm on the Tilly Tax as the precondition for any deal. The negotiations carry an external deadline: the Directors Guild of America contract expires on 11 May 2026, and a DGA deal would remove the most effective source of solidarity pressure on studios. Both sides are aware that a deal before 11 May preserves the multi-union coordination that defined the 2023 strikes.

The Tilly Tax — a royalty on AI-generated performers priced to make synthetic casting cost the same or more than real performers — has evolved from an abstract proposal into the central test case for whether entertainment unions can extract structural AI compensation rather than merely consent safeguards. The 2023 agreement secured the right to say no; the 2026 negotiation seeks the right to be paid when the industry says yes to synthetic casting anyway.

The media blackout signals both sides believe a deal is within reach but do not want public posturing to complicate the final stages. If SAG-AFTRA secures a Tilly Tax framework before the DGA deadline, it will be the first sector-level AI royalty mechanism in the United States — a template that writers, voice artists, and eventually workers in other industries using AI-generated content will attempt to replicate.

Source Material

SAG-AFTRA's AI Contract Provisions Explained SAG-AFTRA strike ends after 118 days as deal reached with Hollywood studios SAG-AFTRA Official Website SAG-AFTRA — Wikipedia

How the World Sees Them

AMPTP (studios)

Studios conceded basic AI consent language under 2023 strike pressure but view AI as a core cost-reduction tool in the post-streaming-bubble era. The Tilly Tax threatens that economic model; studios are expected to contest both the royalty rate and the distribution mechanism.

US technology sector

AI avatar and voice-synthesis companies view the royalty proposal as a regulatory risk that could migrate from entertainment into advertising, gaming, and corporate media. Several firms have begun lobbying against any royalty framework being written into broader AI legislation.

Writers Guild of America

The WGA struck in parallel in 2023 and secured its own AI guardrails, establishing coordinated performer-and-writer bargaining not seen since the 1960s. A SAG-AFTRA precedent on AI royalties would strengthen the WGA's position in its next contract cycle.

International performers' unions

European and Australian performers' unions lack equivalent collective bargaining leverage against US-based streaming platforms that dominate their markets. A SAG-AFTRA AI royalty framework could become the de facto global standard through platform adoption rather than local negotiation.