Hollywood Video Game Actors Go On Strike Over AI Fears
By Movieguide® Contributor
After more than a year and a half of ongoing negotiations, video game actors represented by SAG-AFTRA have decided to go on strike due to unresolved issues in the realm of AI.
“Eighteen months of negotiations have shown us that our employers are not interested in fair, reasonable AI protections, but rather flagrant exploitations,” said Interactive Media Agreement Negotiation Committee Chair Sarah Elmaleh. “We refuse this paradigm — we will not leave any of our members behind, nor will we wait for sufficient protection any longer.”
“We look forward to collaborating with teams on our Interim and Independent contractors, which provide AI transparency, consent and compensation to all performers, and to continuing to negotiate in good faith with this bargaining group when they are ready to join us in the world we all deserve,” Elmaleh continued.
Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and video game studios began in October 2022. Even as the dual strikes struck Hollywood last summer, video game performers were willing to wait for the large studios to come around to fair AI protections without forcing their hand. Unfortunately, their patience has not paid off, and with negotiations at a standstill after nearly two years, they have been forced to strike.
Just as with the writers’ and actors’ strikes, this new strike centers almost entirely around protecting performers from AI. With the growth of the technology over the past two years, creatives in the industry want to solidify job security in their contract and keep companies from being able to replace them with AI.
Many smaller studios have already agreed to these terms, and they will be allowed to continue work, while the development at larger studios that remain at odds with SAG-AFTRA will suffer under the strike.
“We’re not going to consent to a contract that allows companies to abuse AI to the detriment of our members,” said SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. “When these companies get serious about offering an agreement our members can live – and work – with, we will be here, ready to negotiate.”
The strike will begin on Friday, August 2.
Movieguide® previously reported:
For over a year and a half, SAG-AFTRA negotiators have been working to protect video game actors from AI, and while significant protections have been secured, major studios’ unwillingness to cooperate might lead to a strike.
“[AI] is the major obstacle to having an agreement,” said SAG-AFTRA’s executive director, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. “The fundamental issue is, at this moment, an unwillingness by this bargaining group to provide an equal level of protection from the dangers of AI for all of our members.”
Similar to the writers’ and actors’ strike last year, SAG-AFTRA’s video game members are not opposed to AI outright; they just want to be in control of how their data is used in relation to AI. The fundamental fear is that studios will train AI using their past and current work, which would place their future job security at risk.
“Our concern is the idea that all of this work translates into grist for the mill that displaces us,” explained Sarah Elmaleh, chair of the interactive negotiating committee. “They do not have to call us back, you do not have to be informed of what they’ve used your material to create.”
