Video game artists will go on strike over artificial intelligence issues

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood video game artists voted to strike on Thursday, sending parts of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after negotiations for a new contract with major game studios broke down. artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture artists from the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The change comes after almost two years of negotiations with gaming giants including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., on a new interactive media deal.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains were made in terms of wages and job security in the video game contract, but that the studios will not reach a deal on regulating generative AI. Without safeguards, gaming companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice or create a digital replica of their image without consent or fair compensation, said the union.

Fran Drescher, president of the union, said in a prepared statement that members would not approve a contract that would allow companies to “abuse AI.”

“Enough is enough. When these companies get serious about offering a deal our members can live with – and work with – we will be here, ready to negotiate,” Drescher said.

A spokeswoman for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the companies and the union had reached agreements on almost everything, including wages and safety provisions. She also said the studios offered AI protections that would require “consent and fair compensation to all artists.” ”

“We are disappointed that the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to an agreement and remain prepared to resume negotiations,” Cooling said.

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion in profit annually, according to gaming analysts. New zoo. The people who design and bring these games to life are the driving force behind their success, said SAG-AFTRA.

“Eighteen months of negotiations have shown us that our employers are not interested in fair and reasonable AI protections, but rather in blatant exploitation,” said Sarah Elmaleh, chair of the Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee.

Last month, union negotiators told the Associated Press that game studios have refused to “provide an equal level of protection from the dangers of AI to all of our members” — specifically, movement artists.

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 it did guarantee a bonus pay structure for voice actors and performance capture artists following an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. This The work stoppage marked SAG-AFTRA’s first major labor action following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors’ unions in 2012.

The video game deal covers more than 2,500 “off-camera performers (voice-over), on-camera performers (motion capture, stunt doubles), stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers and background performers,” according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and low-budget video game projects. The staggered-budget independent interactive media deal contains some of the AI ​​protections that video game industry titans have rejected.