Video Game Actors and Performers to Strike Over AI Protections

The fight over the use of artificial intelligence in the entertainment industry continues as SAG-AFTRA union members called a strike after negotiations with video game developers fell apart over the use of generative AI. The strike will begin on Friday, July 26, SAG-AFTRA said in a statement.

The actor’s union has been in negotiations with video game studios Since October 2022.

“The most important point is that we're talking about emerging technology that is going to affect the entire world,” SAG-AFTRA spokesperson Zeke Alton told Decrypt during a media Q&A. “We just happen to be the canary in the coal mine. We're setting a precedent for how the workforce in general, both the United States and around the world, is going to be treated.”

While the 2023 actors’ strike concerned other important issues, including pay and residuals, generative AI was a key striking point. Alton said this concern continues in the current video game industry negotiations.

“Are they going to use this new emergent technology as tools for creatives and for workers to create efficiency? Or is this tool going to be used by executives to remove the worker?” the spokesperson asked. “That's why this fight—the fight that came before and this one that follows on—has to build upon it.

“Because it's really, really important that we as workers in the labor environment in general understand that we have rights, and that we're not here to just be wiped out,” Alton added.

SAG-AFTRA declined to comment on how and where strike actions will take place.

“Although agreements have been reached on many issues important to SAG-AFTRA members, the employers refuse to plainly affirm, in clear and enforceable language, that they will protect all performers covered by this contract in their AI language,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement.

According to the terms of the strike, SAG-AFTRA members will cease performing, providing technical support, motion capture work, and engaging in physical and online publicity.

“Given the close proximity of the calling of the strike with San Diego Comic-Con, the foregoing rules relating to promotion and publicity services do not apply to promotion and publicity services provided at SDCC,” SAG-AFTRA added.

The video game studios with which SAG-AFTRA has been negotiating include Activision Productions, Electronic Arts Productions, Disney Character Voices, WB Games, Insomniac Games, Formosa Interactive, Llama Productions, Take 2 Productions, VoiceWorks Productions, and Blindlight.

Workers across industries have worried about losing their jobs to generative AI after the release of ChatGPT in November 2022. Among the most outspoken are those in the film, television, and video game industry.

“There’s a ton of anxiety for artists across the board with AI,” Molly Warner, an environment artist at Blizzard Entertainment, told Wired Magazine last week. “Pretty much everyone I know is vehemently against the use of AI-generated images.”

The video game strike comes less than a year after the actors' union ended its last strike after negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) stalled in July 2023.

“Frankly, 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 A.I., and the public supports us in that,” SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in a press release.

“We’re not going to consent to a contract that allows companies to abuse AA to the detriment of our members. Enough is enough,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher added in the release. “When these companies get serious about offering an agreement our members can live—and work—with, we will be here, ready to negotiate.”

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.