Walt Disney, Activision, and Warner Bros, at Centre of Video Game Studio Strike Over AI Exploitation

Key Takeaways

• Members of the SAG-AFTRA union are striking against video game studios.
• The union is demanding protections for video game actors whose voices or images are replicated by AI.
• The dispute follows last year’s Hollywood actors’ strike over similar issues.

Members of SAG-AFTRA working in the video games industry went on strike on Thursday after the union failed to reach an agreement with major game developers on their use of AI.

Following more than a year and a half of negotiations that began in October 2022, 98.32% of affected members voted in favor of the strike, which is directed at Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Disney, Epic Games, Warner Brothers, and others.

Video Game Actors Demand AI Guarantees

The dispute centers on what SAG-AFTRA has termed “flagrant exploitation” of union members by employers.

Specific demands include fair compensation for AI-generated content that uses an actor’s voice or likeness and the right to informed consent.

The strike officially started at 12:01 Pacific time on Friday. Until it is resolved, members of the 160,000-person union will no longer act in video games produced by 10 companies covered by an interactive-media agreement (IMA).

In a statement shared with CCN, a spokesperson for the video game producers party to the IMA said they were “disappointed the union has chosen to walk away,” but remain prepared to resume negotiations.

They said the parties had already found common ground on 24 out of 25 proposals and that the offer on the table “extends meaningful AI protections that include requiring consent and fair compensation to all performers.”

Echoes of the 2023 Hollywood Strike 

The latest dispute replays the same themes that were at the center of a broader Hollywood strike  against television and movie studios in 2023

“It’s stunning that these video game studios haven’t learned anything from the lessons of last year – that our members can and will stand up and demand fair and equitable treatment with respect to AI, and the public supports us in that,” SAG-AFTRA Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland stated.

After what was the longest strike in the union’s history, SAG-AFTRA eventually secured concessions covering “digital replicas” of performers, although some actors argued the measures didn’t go far enough.

As the union once again heads to the negotiating table, it will try to secure similar protections for video game actors. 

Informed Consent in the Age of AI

As AI’s ability to realistically emulate human faces, bodies and voices has advanced, some actors say they have had their likeless copied without permission.

In May, Scarlett Johannson expressed outrage that OpenAI had released a new AI agent with a voice that sounded “eerily similar” to her own.

Meanwhile, two voice actors are suing  the AI firm Lovo for allegedly commissioning them under false pretenses and then selling AI-generated versions of their voices. 

Compared to ongoing copyright disputes that center on AI developers’ use of text or artworks, the Lovo complaint and the latest strike attend to notions of bodily autonomy that resonate at a more personal level. 

Sharing sexually explicit deepfakes without their subject’s permission is illegal in many countries. However, as things stand, the same standards of consent don’t apply to other applications of generative AI.

As society wrestles with the legal and ethical consequences of a rapidly evolving technology, SAG-AFTRA once again finds itself at the center of a debate over different stakeholders’ rights and responsibilities.