Video game actors represented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) will hold a vigil at Disney Character Voices in Burbank on August 15 at 9 a.m. PT.

The labor dispute is about the use of artificial intelligence to replicate the voices and movements of actors in video games: “SAG-AFTRA is scrapping this contract so that members who work in interactive media (video games) can continue to earn a living doing the work they love. Our members’ labor and image are being exploited by artificial intelligence, and video game companies have refused to offer a fair deal that addresses this existential threat,” the union’s statement said.

SAG-AFTRA protests against AI protection for video game actors

The union began a strike on July 26, preventing its 160,000 members from participating in new video game projects as well as existing projects that begin operations after August 2023. If a publisher agrees to SAG-AFTRA’s Interim Interactive Media Agreement, it will be able to use unionized talent.

While SAG-AFTRA and the negotiating committee of video game publishers (Activision, Take-Two, Insomniac, WB Games and others) reached agreement on 24 of 25 proposals, negotiations on the use of artificial intelligence in video games failed.

In a recent report from TheGamer on the strike, Spider-Man 2 voice actor Yuri Lowenthal told us that SAG-AFTRA favors a consent, compensation, and control approach. This would give voice actors complete control over the use of their voice or likeness, rather than creating a situation where once a voice actor has been fully compensated, the publisher has full rights to use their performance as they see fit, including using it as the basis for generative AI.

The negotiating committee argued that their proposals offered meaningful protections for AI, claiming they were “among the strongest in the entertainment industry.” SAG-AFTRA disagrees, saying the attached terms, conditions and exclusions “eat away” those protections.

Under the terms of the bargaining board, an artist’s performance would only be protected if it is used in a way that makes it recognizable as a source, and there must also be a one-to-one relationship between the artist and the depiction of that character. This is a special set of circumstances that would exclude many artists.

Jennifer Hale, one of the most prolific voice actresses of the last two decades, agrees, saying, “If companies get permission, they could take any of my roles, feed them into an AI and get a brand new performance. We can’t sustain that, and we actors are just the canary in the coal mine. It’s coming for all of us.”

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The SAG-AFTRA gaming strike declared by actors, union and industry

Yuri Lowenthal, Jennifer Hale and others walk us through the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike and explain what actors are fighting for.