The reason actors are striking again isn't entirely surprising: studios are unwilling to give video game actors adequate protection from artificial intelligence.
Video game performers affiliated with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Entertainers (SAG-AFTRA) staged a walkout on Thursday, citing AI protections as a “stumbling block” in ongoing negotiations with major game studios.
“We will not accept contracts that allow companies to misuse AI to harm our members. Enough is enough,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said of the strike. “If these companies are serious about proposing an agreement that allows our members to live and work, we are ready to negotiate.”
The move comes about a year after union members nearly unanimously approved a larger strike. The labor dispute came in the midst of a nearly four-month actors' strike that also included concerns about studios scanning actors' likenesses for future AI reproductions.
SAG-AFTRA said in early September 2023 that it was concerned that actors in video games (aka “interactive media”) could be subject to similar AI abuse after negotiations stalled when bargaining agreements with studios expired in 2022.
The strike authorization vote does not mean that a workers' walkout will begin immediately, but it will put further pressure on studios to cave to the union's demands, which appear to be falling on deaf ears as SAG-AFTRA takes action against studios with which it has been negotiating for the past 18 months.
Affected studios include Activision Blizzard, Disney, Electronic Arts and Sony subsidiary Insomniac Games.
“Despite reaching an agreement on many issues important to SAG-AFTRA's members, the employers refuse to articulate in clear, enforceable language the AI language that protects all performers covered by this contract,” SAG-AFTRA said of the now-official strike.
Just as famous actors have been cloned by AI for advertising purposes without their permission, the union is concerned that the off-screen performances of its members working in the interactive media sector could also be cloned and used without their permission.
In essence, AI models could be used to recreate those performances without due compensation or consent to the people depicted, resulting in the performers suffering a loss.
At a press conference yesterday, SAG-AFTRA's lead contract negotiator, Ray Rodriguez, said it's not just voice actors who are worried, but motion capture actors and physical performers too, who may have their work duplicated.
“The industry has been very clear that they don't necessarily consider everyone who performs physical acts to be a performer covered under a collective bargaining agreement,” Rodriguez said, adding that in some cases physical performances are treated as “data” rather than an actor's work.
“We will strike as a last resort. We have been responsible and given this process as much time as possible,” Rodriguez told a news conference.
A spokesman for a studio involved in the negotiations said they were disappointed the union had walked away from the talks “when they were so close to an agreement”.
“We've already reached agreement on 24 of the 25 proposals, including historic wage increases and additional safety measures,” studio president Audrey Cooling said. Registry“Our proposal directly responds to SAG-AFTRA’s concerns and expands meaningful AI protections, including requiring consent and fair compensation, for all performers who work under SAG-AFTRA. [Interactive Media Agreement]These terms are some of the most powerful in the entertainment industry.”®
