Artificial intelligence was one of the most heavily scrutinized issues on the bargaining table, and the WGA explains how the new contract protects writers from A.I. Under the new contract, A.I. cannot "be used to undermine a writer's credit or separated rights." Additionally, companies must inform writers if material has been generated by A.I., and if a company uses a writer's material to train A.I. models, the WGA is allowed to deem that training as unlawful.
Another important issue on the table was streaming residuals, which had previously been notoriously difficult to come by for writers. Streaming services now must share statistics about streaming data with the WGA, and for shows and movies that are viewed by 20% of a streaming service's subscribers within 90 days, writers will be compensated with significant residual bonuses.
Additionally, the new contract increases minimum pay rates, improves provisions for health care, expands residual payments for streaming, and ensures longer minimum periods of work for writers in development rooms and post-greenlight rooms. The WGA had also hoped to expand the minimum number of writers in a writers' room to six plus one more for every two episodes, but conceded to three writer-producers, plus an an additional two to three writers if the season has seven or more episodes.
Meanwhile, the SAG-AFTRA strike, which began in July, will continue until the union is offered a fair deal from the AMPTP.reported that the two parties could next meet for negotiations by the end of next week, but a SAG-AFTRA spokesperson also told the outlet that "We have no confirmed dates scheduled and there will not be meetings with the AMPTP this week," and that "When we do have dates confirmed, we will inform our members. No one should rely on speculation.