MOVIE NEWS – With the industry’s memory of the SAG-AFTRA’s 118-day strike fading, the union is preparing to sit down with studios on Feb. 9 to fight a new, more direct, AI threat.
The “Tilly Tax” is SAG-AFTRA’s latest idea in the fight against AI. While the idea doesn’t attack the heart of the problem, the union has been forced to get inventive as they deal with the unsettling reality that AI actors are here and likely won’t be going away for good.
Named after AI actor Tilly Norwood, the Tilly Tax proposes that in future projects, studios that use synthetic actors in place of humans might have to pay a royalty into a union fund. Studios have known that pushback was coming for this blatant abuse of AI over human actors, yet if the historic 2023 strike couldn’t get them to listen, then negotiations hardly seem likely to curb the problems actors are facing.
Created by actor-comedian and technologist Eline van der Velden and an offshoot of her company, Xicoia, Tilly Norwood has already disrupted the industry. While the AI was originally used in a comedy sketch titled “AI Commissioner,” it didn’t take long to understand that Tilly would become a major problem in the entertainment industry, the “AI-generated performer” even had agencies bidding to represent them. While Tilly is not nearly where SAG-AFTRA’s demands end, the sparse improvements from the 2023 strikes proved that the transition to streaming and abuses of royalties and residuals would be a much harder mountain to climb, yet it is still on the union’s mind.
“Is that a perfect solution? No, but it’s under the category of the best bad idea we’ve got in 2026,” says Brendan Bradley, a member of the union’s AI task force.
Will the Tilly Tax Hold Off Another Strike?
“The No. 1 thing is still residuals. Is there a way to make it so when a show goes up on a streaming platform, we get the equivalent amount of money as a network residual?” Kate Bond, a strike captain in 2023 and a member of the union’s L.A. board.
Since the 2023 strike went from demanding fair residuals to instead accepting “success bonuses,” hopes are not high for these negotiations ahead of the Jun. 30 contract expiration. Yet SAG-AFTRA has no choice but to continue seeking deals in any way they can. There has been no explicit talk of another strike, but studios may be backing actors into a grim corner by holding onto these AI-generated performances.
Every negotiation is aimed at gaining ground for actors’ #1 problem in an industry dominated by streaming platforms: residuals. These used to sustain actors between jobs and are now nearly nonexistent due to the fall of cable TV and the switch to streaming, where reruns don’t exist. If the entertainment industry wants to remain stable, something has to change, so if Tilly is already appearing in projects, it’s time that SAG-AFTRA benefited from the insult before it gets worse.
Source: MovieWeb
