SAG-AFTRA's AI rules, explained for brands and creators

By HyperKnown Team·Published September 1, 2026

SAG-AFTRA, the union representing roughly 160,000 performers, has spent the last three years writing the most detailed AI likeness rules in any industry. Even if you never touch a union production, these agreements matter: they define what informed consent for a digital replica looks like, and both state law and market practice have been copying them. This is the plain-English version, with links to the primary sources.

What do SAG-AFTRA's AI rules require?

Those principles were set in the 2023 TV/Theatrical agreement that ended the actors' strike, and every later agreement has built on them. The union's AI resource hub tracks the full set of provisions across contracts.

What counts as a digital replica?

The agreements distinguish two kinds. An employment-based digital replica is created from a performer's work on a project, with their participation: a scan, a recording session, footage. An independently created digital replica is built from existing material the performer did not make for that purpose. Both require consent and compensation for use; the second category gets stricter treatment because the performer was never in the room. Separate from both is the synthetic performer: an AI-generated character not based on any identifiable real person.

What changed in the 2026 TV/Theatrical agreement?

The agreement ratified in June 2026 tightened the synthetic side. Productions that use a synthetic performer instead of hiring a human, or instead of licensing a real actor's replica, now carry a contractual justification obligation: the synthetic choice must add value beyond avoiding paying a person. The agreement also extended the consent and compensation framework across a dozen AI-specific provisions covering replicas, synthetic performers, and voice work. The direction of every revision has been the same: human performance is the default, and synthetic substitution needs a reason.

What about commercials and video games?

The Commercials Contract requires clear and conspicuous consent before a digital replica of a performer is created or used in advertising, with the intended use described. The Interactive Media Agreement covering video games defines a voice actor as a human performer, which makes AI-generated voices a separate category requiring separate written consent, and sets premium minimums for advanced uses: performances captured to drive real-time generation, such as a replica-voiced game character, pay at least 7.5 times scale.

Why do these rules matter outside union work?

Three reasons. First, legislators copied them: California's AB 2602 makes replica contract clauses unenforceable when the uses are not reasonably specific and the person had neither counsel nor union representation, which imports the union's consent standard into ordinary contracts. Second, brands inherit them whenever campaign talent is a union member, on top of everything in the brand consent workflow. Third, they set the market's reference point for what fair looks like: specific consent, described uses, separate pay.

That reference point is per-project consent by another name. A marketplace where every use of a likeness arrives as a described brief, gets individually approved, and pays the creator a stated share per license is applying the union's logic to non-union talent. That is the model HyperKnown runs, and the buyouts piece explains what the alternative costs the person signing.

What happens when the rules are broken?

Union agreements come with enforcement machinery ordinary contracts lack. A producer who creates or uses a replica without the required consent faces the grievance and arbitration process, back pay, and penalties under the agreement, and the union has shown it will bargain hard on these provisions: the AI terms exist because performers struck for months over them in 2023. On top of the contractual layer, the performer keeps their legal claims: the state statutes in the law map apply to union members like anyone else, so an unauthorized replica can breach the contract and violate publicity law at the same time.

For brands the practical takeaway is sequencing. Confirm early whether campaign talent is union, because the answer changes the consent paperwork, the compensation floor, and who needs to sign off. Discovering mid-production that your presenter's replica falls under the Commercials Contract is an expensive way to learn the definitions above.

This article summarizes contract provisions in plain language and is not legal advice. Facts checked September 1, 2026 against SAG-AFTRA's published materials; the union's AI hub is the authoritative source.