Video game performers strike over concerns about AI

Performers who lend their vocal talents to video games have voted to go on strike after talks broke down with the studios over the use of AI in productions.

This is the second stoppage in the last year for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which ended its historically long 118-day walkout over film, television and streaming contracts in November last year.

Last year’s action, paired with a strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA), also disputed the use of AI within the film and television industries. Now, the issue of AI has become the central focus of a new disagreement within a different division of the SAG-AFTRA union.

SAG-AFTRA represents more than 2,500 video game performers who do work including voice-overs, motion-capture, to stunt performers and singers.

The strike, which began at 12:01 a.m. Friday, comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI.

A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

“The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a