Members of SAG-AFTRA’s video games branch are being advised to strike as negotiations for AI protections have reached a standstill. The union, representing voice and motion-capture actors in the video game industry, has announced that the strike will begin on July 26th at 12:01 am. This decision follows 18 months of negotiations with major publishers, including Activision and Electronic Arts, during which the union has sought to secure guaranteed protections against the use of their members’ work in AI technologies.
The union’s primary concern is the potential exploitation of actors’ voice and body image captures for proprietary AI systems, without adequate compensation or control. They believe that publishers are not committed to fair and reasonable agreements regarding the use of AI, but rather see it as an opportunity for exploitation.
In a press release, Sarah Elmaleh, Chair of the Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee, stated, “Eighteen months of negotiations have shown us that our employers are not interested in fair, reasonable A.I. protections, but rather flagrant exploitation.” The strike serves as a means to pressure publishers into taking the union’s demands seriously and reaching a mutually beneficial agreement.
