Hollywood’s video game performers voted to go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.
The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.
SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the studios will not make a deal over the regulation of generative AI. Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.
Wouldn’t this just make them invest more heavily in AI so this can’t happen a second time?
Well, this strike only affects the video game industry in the United States. The video game industries in other countries are still going and can use AI in development, we just have to see how this plays out in the future.
For example, in the future, if American actors decide to participate in Chinese or Indian video games and they use AI, they will have to accept the terms that the developer wants in their project or let someone else take their role.
Yup. It’ll also be handy knowing that you’ll never have an AI actor get “cancelled” for whatever random reason might come along.