Wednesday, members The Guild of Screen Actors – The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or Thug AFTRA, voted to ratify a new contract for video game performers, officially ending a nearly one-year strike. A majority, 95% of members, vote in favour of the contract, ensuring three years of annual salary increases, increased compensation, and guardrails designed to prevent gaming companies from providing work to AI.
The video game industry actor has been on strike for 11 months as part of the fight to ensure protection against AI. All other issues in the contract, including compensation and working conditions, had already been resolved a few months ago, says Duncan Crabtree-Areland, national executive director and chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA. The strike was temporarily suspended in June, waiting for the contract to ratify.
According to voice actor Sarah Elmaleh, who is also the chairman of the SAG-AFTRA committee, actors in the gaming industry have been tired of AI for many years, even before tools like ChatGpt are used. “I knew this was the most existential issue of importance,” says Hermale. “It's a fundamentally digitalized medium.”
The work of a performer is essential to creating a game. Actors' voice characters, helping them make their characters look more natural by doing motion capture, allowing companies to use portraits. Additionally, AI has impacted all industries, including animation, technology, education, and more, but the video game industry is beginning to feel the impact of them rapidly.
As part of the agreement, consent and disclosure agreements are now required if video game makers want to create AI-driven digital replicas using the voices and likeness of performers. If performers take a strike, they are also allowed to suspend approvals to businesses to use AI to generate new material.
AI is already beginning to replace flesh and blood actors, even in prominent cases. In May, Fortnite We have introduced a generation AI version of Darth Vader from Star Wars. (The player made him miserable with vows and slander in just a few hours. Fortnite Maker Epic Games pushed the Hotfix shortly afterwards. ) A few days later, SAG-AFTRA submitted unfair labor practice liability to the National Labor Relations Board against Llama Productions, a subsidiary of Epic. In a statement posted on the SAG-AFTRA website, the organization said that replacing human workers with AI was done “without providing any intent to do this and without negotiating on appropriate terms.”
Darth Vader actor James Earl Jones gave permission to recreate his voice digitally with AI before his death in 2024. Crabtree Ireland did not comment on any particular performers or contracts. But he says protection needs to be consistently applied and a “rationally specific” explanation of how the image and voice are used. “These regulations ensure that the image, voice and performance of the deceased artist will be treated with the same respect as the living artist,” says Crabtree-Ireland.
