The ongoing negotiations between the SAG-AFTRA union and game publishers over the integration of artificial intelligence in performances seem to be at a standstill. Despite some progress, the union has expressed that there remains a significant divide in reaching an agreement, particularly concerning AI usage. Since July 2024, union members in the gaming sector have been striking to push for these critical discussions.
The primary issue revolves around the potential use of AI to replicate actors’ voices without their consent or even knowledge. This has been a sticking point, with publishers seeking the liberty to utilize voice replicas repetitively. SAG-AFTRA has been vocal about the misleading impression given by some in the bargaining group that a deal is near completion.
“It’s far from the truth,” the union emphasized in their statement. They highlighted concerns over tactics that might encourage division among their ranks. To shed light on the discrepancies, SAG-AFTRA urged its members to review an updated comparison chart of the AI proposals, which clearly illustrates the vast differences in the current stances regarding AI protections for performers.
The publishers are pushing to utilize past and externally sourced performances without the necessary protections being negotiated. Actors could potentially remain uninformed about the usage of their voice replicas, receive no compensation, and have no recourse to object. Alarmingly, there’s also a push to keep these replicas active during future strikes, regardless of the actors’ consent. Even if consent is given for specific uses, publishers are not obliged to disclose what they actually do with the replicas.
Yet, amid these challenging negotiations, there is a silver lining. The union reports significant success in securing agreements with other employers. Impressively, over 160 games have entered interim and independent agreements with SAG-AFTRA, with earned revenues for these projects surpassing those of games not affected by the strike. These agreements incorporate the desired protections the union seeks from the bargaining group, demonstrating that these terms are practical and agreeable for numerous gaming companies, regardless of their size, even as resistance persists among the major bargaining publishers.
