• Represented by SAG-AFTRA, video game actors are challenging artificial intelligence issues and their possible effects on their profession.

• Well-known voice performers like Jennifer Hale stress the threat artificial intelligence presents by copying performances without pay.

• Globally, the strike has attracted solidarity; the UK’s Equity Union supports it despite differing legal systems.

Video game actors from the gaming world went on strike last week about using artificial intelligence (AI) and the threat it poses to their livelihoods. It has reignited the debate about how the entertainment industry is adapting to new technology.

Video Game Actors Strike Rumbles on in Row Over AI Concerns

When actor Jennifer Hale talks, you listen. Her delivery is measured and surgically precise, yet her tone has a warmth that most ASMR creators would envy. She could read the phone book, and you’d pay attention.

It’s unsurprising, then, that her voice is her livelihood and that she takes the threat to her industry posed by AI so seriously.

“They see that the work of our souls is nothing more than a commodity to generate profits for them,” she says of several major gaming companies. “They don’t see that they’re crushing human beings beneath their feet in blind pursuit of money and profit; it’s disgusting.“

From Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series to Samus Aran in the Metroid titles, Hale’s list of gaming credits is as long as your arm, and her voice is familiar to millions.

Hale is one of the most high-profile video game actors in the world. She’s joined 2,500 US actors union SAG-AFTRA members who perform in games by striking until games divisions of prominent companies like Activision, Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, and EA agree to protections around the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Also, Read: Meta Integrates Generative AI to Transform Metaverse Gaming Experiences.

She tells BBC News, “They could, for example, take all my performances in a game, let’s say Mass Effect, feed them into a machine, not too long down the timeline, spit out an entirely new Mass Effect, with a performance that AI entirely generated.”

Concerns about AI-generated voice were one of the key issues in last year’s 118-day actors strike organized by SAG-AFTRA. The terms were eventually agreed upon with Hollywood studios for film and TV actors.

But the dispute around video games has rumbled, finally boiling over into a strike on 25 July. While both sides have agreed on various issues, AI concerns remain a sticking point.

Video Game Actors’ Rights

Hale may be one of the business’s most successful video game actors. Still, in contrast to those who work in front of the camera and despite the games industry generating revenue estimated to be around $189bn (£147bn) in 2024, voice acting in games is considerably less well paid than film and TV work.

“I’m a single working mother with bills to pay and a life to provide for my kid. As voice actors, we don’t get paid star salaries. They would pay me nothing under what they’re proposing on the other side of this contract.“

Audrey Cooling, a representative of the 10 game companies negotiating with the union, told BBC News, “Our offer is directly responsive to SAG-AFTRA’s concerns and extends meaningful AI protections that include requiring consent and fair compensation to all performers working under the IMA (Interactive Media Agreement).“

This is an ongoing deal to cover artists working in video games. Hale argues not all game companies are the problem; some businesses can and are making deals that work for all sides.

“Anybody sitting in their basement, anywhere making a game, can go to SAG and say, hey, my budget is small; I only have this much money. I want to work with these good actors. What can I do? And SAG will say, absolutely, here you go, how big are you? Great, here’s your structure.“

She adds that this strike might be a symptom of a growing unease in the broader workplace regarding AI in gaming.

Also, Read AI’s Influence on Game Design: From Content Creation to Ethics.

“We actors are the canary in the coal mine. You can see them coming for us, but if they dismiss it, if it gets swept under the rug because we’re just performers, what does that mean?“

Interactive Media Agreements

On the other side of the Atlantic, John Barclay, assistant general secretary of the UK actor’s union Equity, released a statement of solidarity with its stateside counterparts.

“We stand shoulder to shoulder with SAG-AFTRA as partners in a global fight to secure fair pay and protect our members’ rights, which could not be more urgent as we move forward with artificial intelligence innovation.“

Regulations around strikes differ in the UK; Equity members aren’t striking, and neither will UK members of SAG-AFTRA be compelled to.

Actor David Menkin has provided the voice for Luke Skywalker in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and voice work in Final Fantasy XVI and Horizon Zero Dawn, amongst other games.

He explains, “Here in the UK, we don’t have a mutually agreed contract between the union Equity and the producers that make these games. Therefore, even if you’re SAG-AFTRA but were hired on a UK-based contract, you can’t stop, strike, leave the production, and have to fulfill everything in your contract.“

He tells me he’s concerned that US companies may try to work around the issue of striking American actors by coming to the UK and hiring British talent to perform in games instead.

“All we can do is make sure that if the work is dumped in the UK, we are making sure that UK-based actors are fully informed.“

In the US, the strike continues, and while she waits for both sides to return to the negotiating table, Jennifer Hale hopes long-time creative concerns will overcome short-term commercial gain.

“I hope they see that we are all in this together. I don’t understand why they’re willing to kill us all off to increase things a few percentage points; it makes no sense to me.”