On March 7, 2025, during the SXSW Conference, SAG-AFTRA hosted a panel titled “The Future of Hollywood in an A.I.-Saturated World.” The discussion featured key figures from major entertainment unions: Vanessa Holtgrewe from IATSE, Sam Wheeler from WGA East, and Rebecca Rhine from DGA. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland of SAG-AFTRA moderated the session.
The panel focused on how artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are impacting the entertainment industry. Recent union negotiation successes were discussed, highlighting both commonalities and differences in each organization’s approach to A.I. Crabtree-Ireland emphasized the importance of understanding these issues through commitment and transparency: “Part of knowing how to address these problems is actually knowing what’s happening, and that requires an intense amount of commitment of effort and energy from your team and the folks on the other side of the table to be forthcoming about what they’re doing.”
Holtgrewe pointed out concerns regarding intellectual property and copyright laws: “The copyright issue is a very big deal to the studios… if anybody can make Superman’s suit and you don’t own it anymore — that’s very bad.” Rhine added that federal legislation might be necessary: “Ultimately, there has to be some federal legislation.”
Throughout the discussion, speakers stressed viewing A.I. as a tool rather than a replacement for human creativity. Wheeler highlighted this distinction’s importance for storytelling in Hollywood: “If A.I. has never had its heart broken or never lost a job or had a best friend betray it, is A.I. ever going to surprise us?”
A recording of the panel is available on the SAG-AFTRA podcast.
Information from this article can be found here.
