Hollywood video game artists voted to strike Thursday, sending parts of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios collapsed over artificial intelligence protections.
The strike, the second by video game voice actors and motion capture workers from the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Aftra), is set to begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with video game giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros and Walt Disney Co, over a new interactive media deal.
Sag-Aftra negotiators say progress has been made on wages and job security in the video game contract, but studios won’t come to an agreement on regulating generative AI. Without guardrails, video game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.
Fran Drescher, the union’s president, said in a prepared statement that members would not approve a contract that allowed companies to “abuse AI.”
“Enough is enough. When these companies get serious about offering a deal that our members can live and work under, we will be here, ready to negotiate,” Drescher said.
A representative for the studios did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The global video game industry generates more than $100 billion in annual revenue, according to a video game market forecaster New zooThe people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, Sag-Aftra said.
“Eighteen months of negotiations have shown us that our employers are not interested in fair and reasonable protections for AI, 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 refused to “provide an equal level of protection from the dangers of AI for all of our members,” specifically, motion artists.
Last year, members voted overwhelmingly to give management the authority to strike. Concerns about how film studios will use the authority to strike have fueled concerns. AI helped drive Last year’s film and television strikes organised by unions, which lasted four months.
The latest interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured an additional compensation structure for voice actors and motion-capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked Sag-Aftra’s first major labor action after the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.
The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 “off-camera artists (voice-over), on-camera artists (motion capture, stunt performers), stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers and background artists,” according to the union.
Amid the tense interactive negotiations, Sag-Aftra in February created a separate contract covering low-budget, independent video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the AI protections that video game industry titans have rejected.
