Video game voice actor members of SAG-AFTRA go on strike over lack of AI protections for union

A minute after the stroke of midnight, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike Friday.

The strike by the union is in protest of a lack of informed consent requirements for artificial intelligence and generative A.I. to use the faces, voices and bodies of the actors who bring “beloved game characters to life.”

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

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The union’s National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, said bargaining with a variety of publishers, including Activision, Disney, Electronic Arts, Insomniac Games and Take 2 Productions, among others, had continued for more than a year and a half and still has not reached a deal.

Negotiations started in October 2022. In September 2023, union members approved a video game strike with more than 98% of members in favor.

According to SAG-AFTRA, the people who work in the video game industry to bring characters to the console and screen deserve the same fundamental protections as film, television, streaming and music performers, saying those protections are fundamental.

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Those rights include “fair compensation and the right of informed consent for the A.I. use of their faces, voices, and bodies. 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,” Crabtree-Ireland said in a statement.

SAG-AFTRA said the employers they were negotiating with “refuse to plainly affirm, in clear and enforceable language, that they will protect all performers covered by this contract in their A.I. language,” prompting the strike.

In terms of use of generative A.I. and concerns of union members, SAG-AFTRA officials said their performances, from voice to likeness, were being used as data points rather than actual performances.

“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 news conference Thursday afternoon.

Rodriguez told the Associated Press that without the guardrails the union is working to win, A.I. could be trained to copy an actor’s voice, or create a digital copy of their likeness without their consent or fair compensation.

Audrey Cooling, who represents studios negotiating with SAG-AFTRA, told the AP that the studios had offered A.I. protections, but that the two groups had not been able to come to an agreement on what constituted a performer, for the purpose of the A.I. protections.

Cooling said the companies had offered “meaningful A.I. protections” and that “we are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations.”

Impacts in Georgia could be felt both generally due to the union’s size, as well as locally in the metro Atlanta area, in addition to the state’s various projects underway.

There is an Atlanta chapter and state chapter for SAG-AFTRA, as well as multiple video game companies in the area.

While the exact number of members in the state of Georgia wasn’t immediately available, the Atlanta SAG-AFTRA chapter has roughly 3,700 members, as reported by the AP in the fall of 2023.

Channel 2 Action News has reached out to members of the local union chapters for comment on the strike and for more information on their local presence in the metro Atlanta area.

For more information about the video game strike, SAG-AFTRA has a page for where to look up which projects and studios may be impacted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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