Hollywood video game actors picket for AI protection
LOS ANGELES — Hollywood video game artists will take to the Warner Bros. Studios lot Thursday to protest against what they call a reluctance by major gaming companies to equally protect voice actors and motion capture workers from the unregulated use of artificial intelligence.
The protest marks the first major industrial action since voice actors and entertainment workers voted to strike last week. The work stoppage comes after more than 18 months of strike action. negotiations with gaming giants including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co. over a new interactive media deal that has stalled over protections around the use of AI.
Union leaders have called AI an existential crisis for artists. The voices of video game actors and motion capture artists, they say, could be replicated by AI and used without consent or fair compensation. The unregulated use of AI, the union says, poses “an equal or greater threat” to artists in the video game industry than it does to those in film and television, because the ability to easily and cheaply create convincing digital replicas of artists’ voices is widespread.
Audrey Cooling, a spokeswoman for the video game producers, said the companies have offered protections against AI as well as a “significant increase in wages for SAG-AFTRA-represented performers in video games.”
“We have worked hard to come up with proposals with reasonable terms that protect the rights of artists while ensuring we can continue to use the most advanced technology to create an exceptional gaming experience for fans,” Cooling said. “We have proposed terms that provide for consent and fair compensation for anyone employed under the contract if an AI reproduction or digital replica of their performance is used in the games.”
The SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee argued that the studios’ definition of what constitutes an “artist” is critical to understanding the question of who would be protected.
“The industry has made it clear to us that they don’t necessarily consider everyone who performs a motor performance to be a performer covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA contracts director Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference last week, adding that some physical performances are treated as “givens.”
The union was negotiating with an industry bargaining group of signatory video game companies. Those companies are Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Llama Productions LLC, Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc. and WB Games Inc.
Global video game industry to generate nearly $184 billion in revenue by 2023, according to gaming market forecasters Newzoowith revenues expected to reach $207 billion in 2026.
“We are at the table because we want to include SAG-AFTRA-represented artists in our productions, and we will continue to work to resolve the last remaining issue in these negotiations,” Cooling said. “Our goal is to reach an agreement with the union that will end this strike.”
