LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s video game artists went on strike Friday after negotiations with the gaming industry giants, which began more than a year and a half ago, stalled over artificial intelligence protections.
Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have labeled the issues behind the labor dispute — and AI in particular — as an existential crisis for artists. The likenesses of game voice actors and motion capture artists could be replicated and used by AI without their consent and without fair compensation.
The union says the unregulated use of AI poses “an equal or greater threat” to artists in the video game industry than in film and television, because the ability to cheaply and easily create convincing digital replicas of artists’ voices becomes widely available is.
SAG-AFTRA negotiators said there were gains on wages and labor safety in the video game contract, but the two sides remained divided over the regulation of generative AI.
A spokesperson for the video game companies, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered “meaningful AI protections” for artists in their proposal, but the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee said the studios’ definition of who is an “artist” is key is to understand the issue of who would be protected.
“The industry has told us outright that it does not necessarily consider everyone who performs a movement performance to be a performer covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are treated as “dates.”
Here are five things to know about the strike, which went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday:
The agreement covers more than 2,500 “off-camera voice-overs, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers and background performers,” according to SAG-AFTRA.
The union had negotiated with an industry bargaining unit made up of signatory video game companies, including divisions of Activision and Electronic Arts. These 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. ., the union said.
“We are disappointed that the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations,” Cooling said.
Thursday’s labor action marks the second time SAG-AFTRA video game players have gone on strike. Their first work stoppage, in October 2016, began after more than a year of negotiations failed. The union and video game companies reached a tentative agreement eleven months later, in September 2017. At the time, the strike — which helped secure a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists — was the longest in the union’s history, following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors’ unions in 2012.
SAG-AFTRA has said some of the key issues include securing wages that keep pace with inflation, protection against “exploitative use” of artificial intelligence and safety measures that take into account the strain of physical performance and vocal stress. Union negotiators told The Associated Press that they had made gains in negotiations over wages and labor safety, but that the game studios refused to “provide an equal level of protection against the dangers of AI for all of our members.”
“If we had seen adequate protections for all the artists executing this contract … we wouldn’t be here today,” Sarah Elmaleh, chair of the Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee, said in an interview Thursday afternoon.
While the unchecked use of artificial intelligence has been a sticking point in the talks, voice actors and members of the union’s bargaining committee have said they are not anti-AI. However, the artists are concerned that unchecked use of AI could provide game makers with a means to replace it – by training an AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or creating a digital replica of their likeness without permission.
Some also argue that AI could also deprive less experienced actors of the opportunity to play smaller background roles such as non-player characters, typically cutting their teeth before landing bigger roles. The uncontrolled use of AI could also lead to ethical issues if their voices or likenesses are used to create content they morally disagree with, according to artists.
SAG-AFTRA established a separate contract in February for lower-budget indie and video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media deal includes some of the AI ​​protections that the video game industry bargaining group rejected.
The union also announced a side deal with AI voice company Replica Studios in January, allowing major studios to work with unionized actors to create and license a digital replica of their voice. Conditions are also set by which artists can choose not to have their voices used forever.
