Video Game Voice And Motion Actors Go On Strike Amid Rise In AI Technology 

Members of the Screen Actors Guild are now striking against the video game industry after negotiations for a new contract that would govern interactive media and video games fell through. 

Part of these negotiations involved the use of artificial intelligence (AI) within video games. According to reports, the guild first began striking on Friday, July 26th, and now 160,000 SAG-AFTRA actors are prevented from taking on new video game projects. 

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Negotiations initially fell through due to multiple disagreements over worker protections in connection to the use of AI. SAG-AFTRA is responsible for negotiating the terms of the interactive media agreement (IMA) with a committee of video game publishers. 

These publishers include Activision, Take-Two, Insomniac Games, WB Games, and others representing a total of 30 signatory companies, according to reports from The Verge.  

While SAG-AFTRA and the groups were able to make agreements on a number of things, the use of AI in the industry has become a major point of debate, leading to the strike. 

For SAG-AFTRA, their position would be to control AI for both voice and motion performers in relation to digital replicas of an actor’s likeness, or utilizing existing performances as the foundation to create new voices or images without the need of the actual performer. 

According to SAG-AFTRA, there was a lot of disagreement regarding which type of performer should be eligible for AI protections. 

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The Verge reported that SAG-AFTRA chief contracts officer Ray Rodriguez said in an interview with Aftermath “the bargaining companies initially wanted to offer protections to voice, not motion performers. So anybody doing a stunt or creature performance, all those folks would have been left unprotected under the employers’ offer.”

“The companies later extended protections to motion performers, but only if the performer is identifiable in the output of the AI digital replica,” Rodriguez said.

“Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me,” said Andi Norris, a member of SAG-AFTRA’s IMA negotiating committee, during a press conference.

 “[The proposal] would leave movement specialists, including stunts, entirely out in the cold, to be replaced … by soulless synthetic performers trained on our actual performances.”

“Our offer is directly responsive to SAG-AFTRA’s concerns and extends meaningful AI protections that include requiring consent and fair compensation to all performers working under the IMA. These terms are among the strongest in the entertainment industry,” wrote Audrey Cooling, a representative working with the video game companies on the bargaining committee in a statement to The Verge.