As the video game strike drags into the fall, here's why AI remains a sticking point

Video game performers are now in their sixth week on strike over fears that artificial intelligence will create digital replicas that could render their jobs obsolete.

Fears over how AI will affect traditional jobs is nothing new in Hollywood — it was a sticking point in last year's actor and writers strikes that shut down the industry, which has yet to recover.

But the difference this time around is it's the only issue left on the table. SAG-AFTRA, which is representing the roughly 2,600 workers who perform under the contract annually, contends the offer put forward by a group of major video game companies that includes Activision Productions, WB Games and Insomniac Games has so many AI carve-outs that it could allow much of the work of its members' to be replaced.

What both sides are saying about AI

The union said its members want informed consent for the artificial intelligence use of their voices, movements and images, but that the companies only want to offer it when an actor's performance produces one character.

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Video game performers argue that unlike film and television, in their industry it's typical for multiple people's performance to go into a single character.

"[We] expect that our performance will be combined with other performers," said Sarah Elmaleh, a voice actor and chair of the negotiating committee for video game performers.

She gave an example: "[Maybe] the performer who voices Spider Man isn't as stunty or gymnastic. So that performance is combined with one of our talented stunt performers. Combining performance that way — composite performance —is incredibly common in our space."

Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for the video game companies, did not answer specific questions about the union's claims, but said in an email, "Under our AI proposal, if we want to use a digital replica of an actor to generate a new performance of them in a game, we have to seek prior consent and pay them fairly for its use."

Types of performance under dispute

SAG-AFTRA said the companies don't consider the workers who act out the movements of video game characters to be "performers" and therefore don't want to give them protections from AI.

Andi Norris is one of those actors. She has embodied a monster, a soldier, and every character in a restaurant in her time as a video game performer. She said because video game parts are often made using multiple performers, they're at even greater risk of being replaced by AI.

"It is much easier to replicate someone's voice than somebody's entire on-camera presence. It's much easier to replicate somebody's movement than somebody's entire on-camera presence," Norris said.

Last year's film and television actors strike lasted 118 days. Actors with SAG-AFTRA secured informed consent for use of their likeness in the deal they eventually made with Hollywood studios and streamers, although some actors have said that deal didn't go far enough.

How'd we get here?

Negotiations over the Interactive Media Agreement that SAG-AFTRA has with the major video game companies started nearly two years ago, in October 2022. In 2023, those workers voted to authorize a strike.

Not all video game companies are currently stuck — SAG-AFTRA's chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said last week that more than 50 have made deals with the union, and this week the union announced a tentative agreement with company Lightspeed L.A., which makes the game Last Sentinel.

But SAG-AFTRA has not yet returned to the bargaining table with some of the biggest video game companies.

"This is the time where these AI battles have to be had," Crabtree-Ireland. "We can't just put a pin in this issue, wait three years and say, 'Hopefully we'll be able to negotiate it then.' It's not going to be easier. It's going to be harder. And meanwhile, our members will be working without protections."

Note: Some members of the LAist newsroom are represented by SAG-AFTRA. They are not involved in this labor dispute.