A new wave of strikes has erupted in Hollywood, this time over the use of artificial intelligence in the video games industry.
ADVERTISEMENTPerformers who lend their vocal talents to video games have voted to go on strike after talks broke down with the studios over the use of AI in productions.
This is the second stoppage in the last year for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which ended its historically long 118-day walkout over film, television and streaming contracts in November last year.
Last year’s action, paired with a strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA), also disputed the use of AI within the film and television industries. Now, the issue of AI has become the central focus of a new disagreement within a different division of the SAG-AFTRA union.
SAG-AFTRA represents more than 2,500 video game performers who do work including voice-overs, motion-capture, to stunt performers and singers.
Deadlock over role play definitions
The strike, which began at 12:01 a.m. Friday, 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 two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI.
A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.
“The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as “data.”
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.
“We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can,” Rodriguez told reporters. “We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now.”
The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion (€92 billion) in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.
Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.
The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labour action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.
