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actors who would be paid for the day’s work and would be scanned with the residual images to become the property of the studio/network and used later in the project without residual compensation. Taken to the next level, the images (and AI-generated voices) could be extended to more of the project’s actors but the higher paid professionals probably have financial safeguards built into their contracts. Right now the potential for using an actor's image/voice holds a lot of promise but also presents a lot of issues and problems that production company executives and creative professionals need to address. It's going to be a work-in-progress for a long time to come. The AI issues can/will have ramifications across the industry that can’t even be imagined or envisioned now which is why both WGA and SAG-AFTRA are cautiously concerned. While AI is a lot like Mercury, visible but constantly changing, residuals are more easily defined as the industry so rapidly transitioned from theater to traditional TV to streaming. Striking a more union/talent friendly tone during his recent earnings call, Netflix’ co-CEO Ted Sarandos said there were a handful of complicated issues that need to be equitably resolved so the industry can move forward. Prior to the latest round of negotiations, the company had previously signed agreements with SAG-AFTRA covering scripted, dramatic episodic and feature productions. One of the few streamers that isn’t bleeding cash, Netflix has maintained a steady/growing global subscriber base by timing their production starts, free cash flow (funds for developing new/future projects) and carefully managing/controlling the introduction/removal of films/shows to maintain optimum viewership/subscriber retention. Low residual payments could have been quickly resolved if WGA and SAG-AFTA had accepted an agreement AMPTP made with DGA for a 21percent increase over a weekend. To accelerate and maintain growth, Netflix is driven by a steady stream of new films/series while closely monitoring viewership/engagement in minutes and other criteria that aren’t available to or from measurement services such as Nielsen … or other studios/networks. Transparency of analytics such as these are important to the unions to monitor and project writer/actor potential residuals but understanding and analyzing is extremely difficult and far from universally understood.