New generative artificial intelligence protections and a long-awaited merger of SAG-AFTRA ’s two pension plans are just some of the terms of SAG-AFTRA’s four-year deal with studios and streamers, which were revealed Monday. In a year when the spotlight was on the performers’ union to deliver on AI protections, the provisional agreement offers notable safeguards against “synthetic” (i.e. non-human) performers generated by the technology. It commits producers to “a principle strongly favoring human performances,” in the union’s description, and calls for producers not to use synthetic performers instead of human performers unless doing so offers “significant additional value” to the project. The agreement also sets out a long-awaited plan to merge the union’s two pension plans for the first time since the Screen Actors Guild merged with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in 2012. The SAG Pension Plan and AFTRA Retirement Plan are targeting a consolidation by Jan.…