Considering that Hollywood has spent the past few years spiraling about an A.I. jobs apocalypse—and torched half of 2023 in a pair of strikes largely centered on that very issue—it’s honestly a little surprising that this bargaining cycle has been so civilized. Reading through the 18-page summary of SAG-AFTRA’s tentative deal with the studios, I was somewhat startled to see that the union, pending membership approval, had left open the door to “synthetic” actors—i.e., fully A.I.-generated digital performers, not based on or performed by identifiable human actors. After years of warnings that studios wanted infinitely reusable performances, Hollywood has effectively agreed to that future.