Latest / The Mark Simone Show / Jim interviews Rebecca Damon, Executive Director of SAG-AFTRA, New York.

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Jim interviews Rebecca Damon, Executive Director of SAG-AFTRA, New York. · The Mark Simone Show

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  Speaker 1: The Mark Simone Show continues on seven ten. Woo In
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  Speaker 1: for Mark Today, he is Jim Kirk. Good morning. It
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  Speaker 1: is my pleasure to introduce to you Rebecca Damon, who
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  Speaker 1: is the chief labor Policy Officer and New York Executive
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  Speaker 1: Director at SAG after that stands for Screen Actors Guild
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  Speaker 1: American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, And for full disclosure,
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  Speaker 1: I'm a member of that union, and my fellow members
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  Speaker 1: have elected me to serve on the national and local
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  Speaker 1: boards of that union here at iHeartRadio, New York. All
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  Speaker 1: the people that you hear on the air, we are
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  Speaker 1: all members of SAGAFTRA. And Rebecca Damon obviously has a
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  Speaker 1: very important job as executive director of the union here
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  Speaker 1: in New York City, where there are thirty four thousand
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  Speaker 1: members of the New York local. But she does a
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  Speaker 1: lot more than serve those of us who are members.
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  Speaker 1: Her legislation efforts have an effect not just on those
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  Speaker 1: of us who are members of the union, but have
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  Speaker 1: an effect upon all of you, especially concerning Ai and Rebecca.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Mark Simon Show.
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  Speaker 2: Hey Jim, it's pro good to hear from you in
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  Speaker 2: this context, not just in the boardroom on the air well.
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  Speaker 1: The fact of the matter is that with state legislatures
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  Speaker 1: around the country, different legislative initiatives that you are involved in,
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  Speaker 1: as well as appearances before congressional committees in the House
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  Speaker 1: and in the Senate, you've been trying to build bipartisan
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  Speaker 1: coalitions to create protections that of course protect your members,
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  Speaker 1: but also protect the general public at large. For instance,
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  Speaker 1: to Know Fakes Act, and I understand a new law
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  Speaker 1: went into effect, the Take It Down Act.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, I think this is something that everybody should
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  Speaker 2: pay attention to because while it obviously affects sagast remember
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  Speaker 2: like yourself, like our like our film, television, video game actors, broadcasters, singers, dances,
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  Speaker 2: recording artists, what is happening in the AI space is
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  Speaker 2: something that the public really wants to pay attention to.
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  Speaker 2: We were really lucky, but the Take It Down Act
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  Speaker 2: did receive that bipartisan support, along with the support of
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  Speaker 2: the American Medical Association, the Artists Rights Alliant, Talents Agents,
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  Speaker 2: Black Music music Artists coalitions, different agencies, obviously the recording
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  Speaker 2: industry of America. UH, just a huge amount of people. Obviously,
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  Speaker 2: the NPA, we were very very lucky, butfic.
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  Speaker 1: What specifically does the legislation entail.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it covers platforms have to establish a process take
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  Speaker 2: it down through which an identifiable individual can request removal
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  Speaker 2: of a non con sexual intimate visual depiction. This is
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  Speaker 2: super important. They have the platforms must remove the within
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  Speaker 2: forty eight hours and make reasonable efforts to identify and
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  Speaker 2: remove the copies. And that just became effective. It was
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  Speaker 2: passed last year, but it became effective now and so
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  Speaker 2: we obviously are celebrating that because that helps not just
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  Speaker 2: our members, but that helps the public. A lot of
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  Speaker 2: people don't realize that, Yeah, go.
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  Speaker 1: Ahead, because the AI tools that exist at this particular
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  Speaker 1: point in time can take anyone and make it look
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  Speaker 1: as if they're doing things that they've never done and
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  Speaker 1: saying things that they would never say. Yeah, and until
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  Speaker 1: this legislation took effect, you try to get it removed
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  Speaker 1: from a platform, and it's just tough luck for you.
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  Speaker 2: That's exactly right, And you know it's an important step
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  Speaker 2: because it really is huge progress for victims of these
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  Speaker 2: non consensual intimate imagery and this AI generated you know,
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  Speaker 2: a sexual deep fake, and who gets harmed by that?
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  Speaker 2: Actually the most is young women and girls. And so
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  Speaker 2: this is something that I think everybody cares about. When
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  Speaker 2: Congress you know, passed it, it was a stepping stone
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  Speaker 2: from our point of view. The President cited in the law,
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  Speaker 2: we had huge supporter in Milania Trump, we had bipartisan support.
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  Speaker 2: This was very important. And now we're working on the
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  Speaker 2: no Fake Fact and the no Fake Fact was just reintroduced,
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  Speaker 2: which is super exciting, Like I feel like it's breaking news.
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  Speaker 2: You picked the perfect timing just yesterday, just Wednesday, And
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  Speaker 2: that is a new vision of version of new fakes.
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  Speaker 2: No fakes stands for for your listeners, nurture originals, foster art,
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  Speaker 2: and keep entertainment safe. And we are building support for this.
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  Speaker 2: And what it does is give people control over people's
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  Speaker 2: voice and likeness that it belongs to the individual, not
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  Speaker 2: too you know, unauthorized AI systems that can produce these things.
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  Speaker 2: And so when a listener is thinking about this, people
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  Speaker 2: just assume that there is a protected rite and they're
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  Speaker 2: often very surprised to know that nor your voice and
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  Speaker 2: your likeness aren't protected in a general sense. And so
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  Speaker 2: this is a comprehensive federal bill to protect tech voice
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  Speaker 2: and likeness. And so as this technology advances, as it
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  Speaker 2: sort of runs ahead, you have to have good guardrails
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  Speaker 2: around how it's used, when it's used, to be able
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  Speaker 2: to protect the people, to protect your listeners, and.
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  Speaker 1: In factoring these very polarizing times, you've been able to
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  Speaker 1: successfully build coalitions including Republicans and Democrats to get this
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  Speaker 1: stuff done.
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  Speaker 3: That's exactly right. I think everybody can agree that these
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  Speaker 3: kinds of issues are important for society and important for
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  Speaker 3: people to understand that. You know, this kind of legislation
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  Speaker 3: as we educate the public and we educate both sides
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  Speaker 3: of the aisle, you know, AI has all these risks
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  Speaker 3: and opportunities like any new technology, and so our member leaders,
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  Speaker 3: our negotiating committees, our government affairs and public policy teams
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  Speaker 3: have really worked to make sure that everybody understands the
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  Speaker 3: importance of getting this done and getting this done now.
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  Speaker 3: There's really not time to waste when it comes to that,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, as there's more detection available out there,
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  Speaker 3: people are really able to move things forward in a
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  Speaker 3: really productive way. And we're excited about the progress we're making,
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  Speaker 3: but we need everybody to pay attention and get on
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  Speaker 3: board for these very very very straightforward guardrails.
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  Speaker 1: All right, well, Rebecca Damon, thank you so much for that.
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  Speaker 1: And we only have about forty seconds left, so could
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  Speaker 1: you just tell our friends because sometimes people get confused,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and they get inconvenienced by you know, film
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  Speaker 1: and TV shoots on their streets and stuff like that.
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  Speaker 1: But how many middle class jobs middle class jobs, right,
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking about Jas Cloney and Nicole Kidman. How many
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  Speaker 1: middle class jobs does the entertainment industry provide here in
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  Speaker 1: New York City every year?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you are so right, you hit right to it.
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  Speaker 2: The middle class jobs. The working people from the crew,
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  Speaker 2: the teamsters, iatzi performers who are not that high profile
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  Speaker 2: a list actor get that benefit, and that is tens
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  Speaker 2: of thousands of jobs. And there's a big multiplier effect.
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  Speaker 2: The businesses, the dry cleaners, the construction yards, your lumber yard,
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  Speaker 2: the caterers, all of those things benefit when production is
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  Speaker 2: in New York City. And so there's a huge multiplier
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  Speaker 2: effect and the great amount of tourism that keeps our
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  Speaker 2: restaurants and cafes and hotels open that come because people
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  Speaker 2: want to see where they filmed the Devilwares or the
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  Speaker 2: Gilded Age or any of those things the city. Let's go,
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  Speaker 2: let's go have a cupcake.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely okay, I Magnolia's that wonderful yet Magnolia Bakery Okay.
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  Speaker 1: Rebecca Damon, thank you so much for spending time with
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  Speaker 1: us on Mark Simon Show.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, thanks Jim.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, it's ten to fifty one and going to take
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  Speaker 1: a break and come back right here on Mark Show
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  Speaker 1: at WLR.