American video game voice actors went on strike. This was announced by the SAG-AFTRA union, which represents the speakers. According to a statement from the American union, 98 percent approved the strike.
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The background is apparently the failed negotiations with major US publishers about the use of AI voices. According to the statement, SAG-AFTRA has been negotiating with major game companies such as Activision, Disney, EA, Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two and Sony subsidiary Insomniac Games for a year and a half.
“We will not agree to any contract that allows companies to exploit AI to the detriment of our members,” said SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. “Enough is enough.” But they are willing to continue negotiations. In the meantime, there are several interim agreements under which game companies can continue to employ striking voice actors.
A representative of the gaming industry told this to American journalist Stephen Totilo for his GameFile newsletterThey were disappointed with the union’s decision. They are already very close to a contract and want to continue negotiations.
Protection from AI voices
The association is primarily concerned with the safety of AI voices: using small samples of voices, AI tools can recreate any sentence in the tone of the voice actors’ voices. The quality is generally worse than that of real voice actors, but for some developers it may be enough.
We can see how AI voices can be used in video games in the modding scene of “The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim,” among other things. Modders use tools like ElevenLabs to create AI-generated voices from the original voice actors for additional quests.
Such AI voices can also be used on television: In the continuation of the children’s TV series “Pamukkale”, the private broadcaster RTL has an AI recreating the voice of Hans Clarin, who spoke the title character in the audio books and the original series in the 1980s. The new texts were recorded by the cabaret artist Maxi Schafroth and converted into Hans Clarin’s voice by an AI. The Clarins family had previously approved the project.
In January, SAG-AFTRA signed a contract with the developer of an AI tool called Replica that aims to prevent the unauthorized use of AI voices. As part of the agreement, voice actors can license their voices to Replica so that the AI version can be used in video games, for example. “This new agreement paves the way for new employment opportunities for professional voice actors with industry-leading protections for their digital voice copies tailored to AI technology,” the US union wrote in a statement.
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