Hollywood Video Game Artists Go to the Picket Line Over AI Protections

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood video game artists are heading to the Warner Bros. studio Studios on Thursday to picket against what they call a reluctance by major gaming companies to equally protect voice actors and motion capture workers against the unregulated use of artificial intelligence.

The protest marks the first major labor action since game voice actors and performance workers voted to strike last week. The strike occurred after more than 18 months of negotiations with gaming giants including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media deal stalled due to protections around the use of AI.

Union leaders have called AI an existential crisis for artists. Game voice actors and motion capture artists’ images, they say, could be replicated by AI and used without consent and fair compensation. The unregulated use of AI, the union claims, poses “an equal or even greater threat” to artists in the video game industry than in film and television because the ability to create convincing digital replicas of artists’ voices cheaply and easy is widely available.

Audrey Cooling, a spokeswoman for the video game producers, said the companies offered AI protections as well as “a significant increase in salaries for artists represented by SAG-AFTRA in video games.”

“We work hard to deliver proposals with reasonable terms that protect artists’ rights while ensuring we can continue to use the most advanced technology to create a great gaming experience for fans,” said Cooling. “We have proposed terms that provide consent and fair compensation to anyone employed under the (contract) if an AI reproduction or digital replica of their performance is used in games.”

The SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee argued that the studios’ definition of who constitutes an “artist” is critical to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

“The industry has clearly told us that it does not necessarily consider everyone who performs movement as a performer covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA director of contracts Ray Rodriguez said at a press conference last week. adding that some physical performances are being treated as “data.”

The union was negotiating with an industry bargaining group made up of signatory video game companies. 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. .

The global video game industry will generate nearly $184 billion in revenue in 2023, according to a gaming industry analyst New zoowith revenues projected to reach US$207 billion in 2026.

“We are at the table because we want to include artists represented by SAG-AFTRA 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 ends this strike.”