In May, tech company Nvidia unveiled a demo of a new generative AI video game engine that allows AI-fueled NPCs to interact with the player in real-time – like an animated ChatGPT.
While the demo character’s robotic voice and comically on-the-nose dialogue leave a lot to be desired, it sparked fears that AI is coming for jobs in every corner of the gaming industry, from developers to writers to voice actors.
SAG-AFTRA’s film and TV performers are clashing with Hollywood producers to shore up their own job security from AI encroachment. But the union’s voice actors who work on video games are covered by a different contract, which is being negotiated separately.
Voice actor Zeke Alton, who’s on the SAG-AFTRA Interactive Media Agreement negotiating committee, told KNX News’ Charles Feldman that video game performers are already feeling the impacts of AI on their work.
“The technology with digital character creation and video games tends to lead that in TV, and film,” he said.“So we've started to see AI sort of infiltrate the industry a lot quicker.”
Technology has long been in place to drastically alter a voice or motion-capture actor’s performance, and some actors have already seen their work repurposed into new games without their consent. As AI advances, it could threaten to replace human actors entirely.
A key issue in SAG-AFTRA’s negotiations with Hollywood studios is the use of “digital replicas” of background actors. The two sides have given vastly different descriptions of the last offer the AMPTP put on the table, with SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator claiming the proposal would allow studios to use actors’ likeness “for the rest of eternity on any project they want.”
The AMPTP disputed this, saying their proposal would require companies to obtain an actor’s consent to use their likeness on other projects.
If SAG-AFTRA reaches a deal with studios on the issue, it could become a blueprint for video game actors in their own negotiations.
“I think the current strike with both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA is a bellwether for the entire entertainment industry and even beyond,” Alton said. “This is really the first public battle that we're having over the displacement of jobs from AI, and I think it's going to reverberate through everything else.”
Alton said part of the struggle is convincing executives and accountants of what performers already know: that “not everything is return on investment, that we have to keep the humanity in the art.”
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