FILE PHOTO: Strikers hold up signs as SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America screenwriters walk along a picket line during a strike in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, July 21, 2023. Photo by Mike Seeger/Reuters
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood video game performers voted to strike Thursday after negotiations with the gaming giant that began nearly two years ago stalled over protections for artificial intelligence.
Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild and the National Federation of Television and Radio Entertainers say the issues behind the labor dispute, and in particular AI, are an existential threat to entertainers: They say the likeness of game voice actors and motion-capture artists could be replicated by AI and used without their consent or fair compensation.
clock: Why artificial intelligence is a central issue in the Hollywood walkout
The union says that because of the widely available ability to cheaply and easily create digital replicas of performers' voices, the unregulated use of AI poses as much or more of a threat to performers in the video games industry as it does in the film and television industries.
“We will not agree to contracts that allow the companies to misuse AI to the harm of our members. Enough is enough. When these companies come serious about offering a contract that allows our members to live and work, we are ready to negotiate,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said in a statement Wednesday.
Here are five things to know about the strike, which begins at 12:01 a.m. Friday.
Who is covered by the agreement?
According to SAG-AFTRA, the deal covers more than 2,500 “off-camera voice-over performers, on-camera (motion capture and stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers and background performers.”
Which gaming companies are involved?
The union was negotiating with the Industry Bargaining Group, which is made up of signatory video game companies, including divisions of Activision and Electronic Arts: Activision Productions, Blindlight, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Take 2 Productions, Voiceworks Productions and WB Games.
The gaming company said it was negotiating in good faith and had reached tentative agreements “on most of the proposals.”
This isn't the first time video game actors have gone on strike.
Wednesday's labor dispute marked the second time SAG-AFTRA video game performers have struck. The first began in October 2016 after more than a year of negotiations collapsed. The union and the video game companies reached a tentative agreement 11 months later, in September 2017. At the time, that strike, which helped secure a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists, became the longest strike in the union's history since Hollywood's two biggest actors unions merged in 2012.
What does the performer want?
SAG-AFTRA cited several key issues, including ensuring wages keep up with inflation, protections against “exploitative uses” of artificial intelligence, and safety measures that account for the strain of physical performance and stress of vocalization. Union negotiators told The Associated Press that while they had made progress in negotiations on wages and job safety, game studios had refused to “provide all of their members with equal protection from the dangers of AI.”
According to the union, the signatory companies have refused to extend AI protections to performers who appear in front of the camera.
“They say they protect voice-over performers, but they don't protect anyone else,” SAG-AFTRA executive director Duncan Crabtree Ireland said in an interview last month. “The bottom line is, if you have performers working for your company who are helping you create content in your game, whether it's audio content, stunt work or motion work, all of those performers have the right to informed consent and fair compensation for the use of their image, likeness, voice and performance. That's it.”
AI is the problem
Unrestricted use of artificial intelligence has become a sticking point in negotiations, but voice actors and members of the union's bargaining committee say they are not anti-AI. But they worry that unrestricted use of AI could give game makers a way to replace them, by training AI to imitate actors' voices or digitally creating likenesses of them without their consent.
read more: Why Artists Push for US Copyright Reform Amid Proliferation of AI Models
Some argue that AI could also deny inexperienced actors the opportunity to take on smaller background roles, such as non-player characters, that typically allow them to gain experience before taking on bigger roles. Actors say unrestricted use of AI could also raise ethical questions if their voices or likenesses are used to create content they morally disagree with.
SAG-AFTRA crafted a separate deal in February aimed at indies and low-budget video game projects: The Tiered Budget Independent Interactive Media Agreement includes some of the AI protections rejected by the video game industry negotiating group.
The union also announced a deal in January with AI voice company Replica Studios that will allow major studios to work with member actors to create and license digital replicas of their voices, with a provision allowing actors to opt out of having their voices used permanently.
