Video game actors strike over AI concerns

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Performers who lend their voice talents to video games have voted to go on strike after negotiations with studios collapsed over the use of AI in their productions.

This is the second strike for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Performers (SAG-AFTRA), which ended a historically long 118-day strike last year covering film, television and streaming. November Contract last year.

Last year's actions were coupled with a strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Objections to the use of AI Within the film and television industry, the issue of AI is currently at the center of new disagreements within another wing of the SAG-AFTRA coalition.

SAG-AFTRA represents more than 2,500 video game performers who work in a variety of jobs, including voiceover, motion capture, stunt doubles and singing.

Impasse over the definition of role-play

The walkout, which began at 12:01 a.m. Friday, comes after nearly two years of negotiations over a new interactive media deal with the gaming giant, which includes Activision, Warner Bros. and divisions of Walt Disney Co.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say that while the video game contract reached an agreement on wages and job security, the two sides remain divided on regulating generative AI.

Audrey Couling, a spokeswoman for video game companies, said the studios proposed the AI ​​protections, but SAG-AFTRA's negotiating committee said the studios' definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding who will be protected.

“The industry has been very clear that we do not consider everyone who performs a physical act to be a performer covered under a collective bargaining agreement,” Ray Rodriguez, SAG-AFTRA's chief contracts officer, said at a press conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical acts are treated as “data.”

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to imitate actors' voices or create digital replicas of their likenesses without their consent or fair compensation, the union said.

“We are going on strike as a last resort. We have been responsible and have given this process as much time as possible,” Rodriguez told reporters. “All other possibilities have been exhausted, that's why we are going on strike now.”

The global video games industry generates well over $100 billion (€92 billion) a year, according to games market forecasting firm Newzoo, and SAG-AFTRA says the people who design and bring these games to life are the driving force behind their success.

Union members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the power to strike. Concerns about how studios might use AI were the driving force behind a four-month strike by the film and TV industry last year.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, offered no protections for AI but did secure a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. The strike marked the first major labor dispute by SAG-AFTRA since the merger of Hollywood's two major actors unions in 2012.