The SAG-AFTRA coalition of actors and performers has called for protections for AI in the video game industry.
Over the past two decades, video games have become an increasingly lucrative industry for actors, with voice acting jobs in hit video game series often being awarded to top stars. With the advancement of AI, actors who had steady work in the industry fear that their jobs may soon disappear, and are seeking protection. The Hollywood Reporter (tree):
Thursday’s event was the second picket organized by SAG-AFTRA since the union was founded. A strike was declared The union began striking against the video game companies on July 25. Performers first demonstrated outside Warner Bros. Games on August 1, and then set up shop a little over a mile from the Disney building two weeks later. (In addition to Disney Character Voices and Warner Bros. Games, the union is currently also striking against Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Insomniac Games, and others.)
According to SAG-AFTRA negotiators, in the two companies’ last formal negotiating session, the video game companies agreed to only a partial but “dangerously incomplete” AI proposal that, if enacted, would leave stunt and motion performers in an especially vulnerable position. A spokesperson for the video game companies countered that their proposal “directly responded to SAG-AFTRA’s concerns” and provides “meaningful AI protections, including requiring consent and fair compensation for all performers working under the IMA (Interactive Media Agreement).” The spokesperson called the contract language “one of the strongest in the entertainment industry.”
Duncan Crabtree Ireland, the union’s national executive director and chief negotiator, said actors feared they would lose their livelihood if they didn’t fight for AI protections.
“Our members say that if we don’t have rights, [AI] “Without protections in this contract, my ability to make a living in this business could be jeopardized over the life of the contract,” he told THR. “This is not something that can wait.”
“We went into the negotiations knowing that this is an existential issue and that there can be no agreement without it,” Salah Elmaleh, the union’s negotiating chief for the deal, told the media.
