SAG-AFTRA video game performers are planning to strike starting Friday as AI “loopholes” raise concerns.
Starting at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, video game voice actors and motion capture performers from the Screen Actors Guild and National Federation of Television and Radio Artists will go on strike over protections for artificial intelligence.
This is the second strike for SAG-AFTRA performers in the video game industry. The union has seen improvements in wages and job security in video game contracts, but AI in interactive media remains a source of anxiety.
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SAG-AFTRA’s chief contracts officer, Ray Rodriguez, said at a press conference Thursday that the current AI guidelines could mean some performers’ work is treated as “data.”
“We are striking as a last resort. We have been working on this process for as long as we could responsibly and we have exhausted all other possibilities so we are striking now,” Rodriguez said.
SAG-AFTRA captains Iris Liu, left, and Miki Yamashita, center, along with SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree Ireland, support striking actors outside Paramount Pictures Studios in Los Angeles on Nov. 3, 2023. Hollywood video game actors voted to strike on Thursday, July 25, 2024, bringing parts of the entertainment industry back on strike after new contract negotiations with major game studios collapsed over artificial intelligence protections. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
The strike comes after nearly two years of negotiations with game makers including Warner Bros. and the Walt Disney Co.
SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee told The Associated Press that the definition of “performer” can differ between the union and the game companies.
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Audrey Cooling, a spokeswoman for the gaming companies involved, told The Associated Press that the companies’ proposal would “meaningfully expand AI protections.”
“We are disappointed that we were so close to an agreement and the union has chosen to walk away. We stand ready to resume negotiations,” Cooling added.
Ali Fromm, who plays “Todd” on “BoJack Horseman,” with her dog “Mr. Peanutbutter” on the left, and Cameron Laventure, who plays “Link” on the video game “The Legend of Zelda,” on the right, stand in Halloween line for the SAG-AFTRA picket outside Netflix on Tuesday, October 31, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Actor Andy Norris told The Associated Press: “The actors who bring their work to these games have created such a wide variety of characters that all of that work has to be covered. Their proposal would be to cut out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to who I am as I sit here, but the fact is, I’m a zombie, I’m a soldier, I’m a zombie soldier, any given week.”
“I cannot and will not accept the notion that a stuntman or movement performer performing a full performance on stage alongside a voice actor is not a performer,” Norris argued.
According to SAG-AFTRA, the video game deal covers 2,500 “off-camera (voice-over) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers and background performers.”
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
