The Writers Guild of America, or WGA, reached a tentative four-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on 4 April 2026, according to Variety1. Studios will put $321m into the writers' health fund, a record contribution that resolves a $122m shortfall; health contributions rise from 13% to 16.75% of gross compensation, with base health contribution rate up 3.75 percentage points. The WGA health fund, projected to run dry without action, is now funded for roughly a decade.
Streaming residuals improved, the success bonus moved from half to 75% of base residual, and annual minimums rise 1.5%, 3%, 3%, 3% over the life of the contract. The writers got the money.
On AI itself, the studios conceded notification, not compensation. AMPTP agreed to tell the WGA when it licenses writers' work for AI training. It refused to pay writers for that training use. The core demand of the 2023 strike, that workers share in the value their own material produces when it becomes machine data, was left on the table.
Against the Goldman 25,000/month anchor, displacement was already running well ahead of declared layoffs. The WGA's failure to win training payment means the value writers create for AI models is uncompensated in the same quarter those models are replacing headcount at IBM, Wipro and Snap. A training-data right would have been the closest thing to a structural hedge. The deal ships without one.
The 4 April settlement clears the path for the SAG-AFTRA session on 27 April, but it also sets the floor the performers' union is arguing against. The WGA accepted a notification-only settlement. SAG-AFTRA is arguing that notification without payment is not an AI protection at all. That is the principle the studios have already banked once, and the one the actors are meeting on 27 April to contest.
