Video game actors want to avoid strike: AI hinders negotiations

For more than a year and a half, the leaders of the actors union of hollywood They have negotiated with video game companies a new contract that covers the artists who bring their titles to life.

The negotiators with the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) have made progress on wages and job security in their video game contract, or interactive media, agreement, but leaders say the agreements have stalled over a key issue: protections over the use of artificial intelligence.

“It is the main obstacle to having an agreement, and this contractual area has been for quite some time“said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA executive director. “The fundamental issue at this time is the unwillingness of this negotiating group to provide an equal level of protection against the dangers of AI for all our members.”.

Union leaders say they are not “totally against the AIBut voice actors and other video game artists are concerned that uncontrolled use of the technology could provide game makers with a means to displace them by training an AI to replicate an actor’s voice or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent.

In some cases, the role of a voice AI It is usually invisible and is used to clean up a recording in the later stages of production or to make a character sound older or younger at a different stage in their virtual life.

“Our concern is the idea that all this work translates into grain for the mill that moves us.“, said Sarah Elmalehchair of the interactive negotiating committee. “They don’t have to call us back, you don’t have to be informed of what they used to create your material.”.

The union has clung to one last option in its battle for a contract: calling a strike. Crabtree-Ireland said the union hopes to avoid a work stoppage, but that “will do whatever it takes to make sure our members are treated fairly”.

“Anyone who thinks we’re afraid to strike, or won’t strike, clearly hasn’t been paying attention.”he added.

The members of SAG-AFTRA voted to give leaders the authority to strike against video game companies in September. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s union strikes, which lasted four months.

Scott Lambrightan actor who has voiced monsters and game characters, said AI could threaten jobs by making it cheaper to use a generated voice, while reducing the quality of vocal performance as an art.

“Emotionally, it will be superficial“, said.

AI could also strip some actors of the opportunity to land smaller background roles where they can hone their craft before landing bigger roles, he said. Lambright.

“Having those roles gives you the self-confidence to take on a bigger role.“, said. “And if you don’t have access to the roles of telling a small part of a story… You’re not going to have confidence in leading something.”.

The last interactive contract, negotiated in 2017, did not offer protections around the AI. The agreement covers more than 2,500 “off-camera artists (voice-over), on-camera artists (motion capture, stunts), stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers and background artists”, according to the union.

The negotiating group of major video game producers is willing to establish protections for voice actors, SAG-AFTRA said, but will not go so far as to include other performers, including stuntmen and motion-capture artists.

Video game companies covered by the interactive agreement include Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc. and WB Games Inc.

Audrey Cooling, a spokeswoman for the companies, said they are negotiating in good faith and “have made tremendous progress”.

“We have reached tentative agreements on the vast majority of the proposals and remain optimistic that we can reach an agreement soon”Cooling said in an emailed statement.

Amid tense negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a new, separate contract in February covering independent and low-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the AI ​​protections that video game industry giants have rejected.

The union also announced a side deal with AI voice company Replica Studios in January. The agreement, which SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher called “a great example of AI done right”, allows major studios to work with unionized actors to create and license a digital replica of their voice. It sets out terms that also allow performers to opt out of having their voices used in perpetuity.

That type of agency is why contractual protections are important, he said. Tim Friedlanderpresident of the National Association of Voice Actors.

Currently, the technology doesn’t exist to monitor what happens to actors’ audio files, he said, and it’s unclear whether decades of recordings have already been used to train performance models. AI. Artists, he said, essentially send their audio files to the person who recorded them and trust that they will ensure that those recordings “be safe.”

Uncontrolled AI can give rise to ethical questions, especially when it comes to a so-called “synthetic voice” which results in voice work that the original actor might not morally agree with.

“If my voice is out there…doing something I wouldn’t say, I’m now potentially in conflict with myself. Now I’m losing work because of my own voice“, said Friedlander.

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