Video game actors on strike in the US say AI threatens their jobs

Striking video game voice actors and motion capture artists held their first picket Thursday in front of Warner Bros. Games and said that artificial intelligence was a threat to their professions.

“The models they are using were trained on our voices without our consent, without any compensation,” “Persona 5 Tactica” voice actress and video game attack captain Leeanna Albanese told Reuters at the picket line.

Video game voice actors and motion capture artists called a strike last week over failed labor contract negotiations focused on AI-related protections for workers.

This marks the latest strike in Hollywood after union writers and actors marched on picket lines last year, with AI also a major concern.

“I think when you remove the human element from any interactive project, whether it’s a video game or a TV show, an animated series, a movie, and put AI in place of the human element, we can say! player, I’m a digester of this content,” said British “Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare & Warzone” actor Jeff Leach.

The strike decision follows months of negotiations with major video game companies, including Activision Productions, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Take-Two Interactive, Disney Character Voices and Warner Bros Discovery’s WB Games.

However, major video game publishers including Electronic Arts and Take-Two are likely to avoid a major blow from the strike due to their in-house studios and long game development cycles, analysts said.

The strike also brings with it a greater call to action in Hollywood, as people in the industry advocate for a law that could also protect them from the risks of AI.

“There is no broader national law to protect us, so the NO FAKES Act is basically legislation with the aim of protecting our identities, protecting our personality on a national scale and not at a state level,” Albanese said.

The NO FAKES Act, a bipartisan bill in Congress that would make it illegal to make an AI replica of someone’s image and voice without their permission, has won support from artists’ union SAG-AFTRA, the Motion Picture Association, The Recording Academy and Disney. .

From Grammy-winning artist Taylor Swift to Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running in the 2024 presidential election, leaders in entertainment and elsewhere say deep fakes created from AI are an urgent political issue.

“Everyone in this country needs protection from the abusive use of AI,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director and chief negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, told Reuters on the picket line.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)