In 2023, SAG-AFTRA members picketed outside Paramount Studios. Now, the focus is on video games.
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Actors and performers from the SAG-AFTRA union have announced a strike against the video game company. Starting Friday, union members will stop any voice acting, motion capture work, stunts and more that appear in video games.
SAG-AFTRA has been in talks with companies including Activision, Electronic Arts, WB Games and Disney for more than a year and a half. Union members approved a strike authorization in September.
The use of artificial intelligence in video game development has become a central issue in negotiations: “We will not agree to a contract that allows companies to misuse artificial intelligence to harm our members. We are fed up,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher wrote in a statement today. . “
SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland wrote that video game performers deserve “fair compensation and informed consent for the use of their faces, voices and bodies by artificial intelligence.”
But video game makers believe their offers are strong. “We have found common ground on 24 of the 25 proposals, including historic wage increases and additional security provisions,” Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for the video game companies involved in the negotiations, wrote today road. “Our proposal directly responds to SAG-AFTRA’s concerns and expands meaningful AI protections, including requiring consent and fair compensation for all performers working under the agency. [Interactive Media Agreement]”.
SAG-AFTRA members went on strike against major Hollywood studios from July to November last year.
Editor’s note: Many NPR employees are members of SAG-AFTRA but have different contracts and are not on strike.
