Video Game Makers Meet AI Defense at Disney Picket: “This Is Not What We Can Expect”

It was an event that evoked a sense of déjà vu: a parade of performers carrying SAG-AFTRA signs and marching in circles under the hot Burbank summer sun.

However, this time the group was not the film and television actors who are asking the studios to provide many more reasons such as great comfort during streaming and full security of AI, as they did during the 2023 actors’ strike. (There were still film and television actors in attendance.) A year later, video game players in a union union, SAG-AFTRA, were picketing the Disney Character Voices building in Burbank while the union was locked out by major entertainment companies. what one artist called “existential”: AI.

Thursday’s event was the second picket organized by SAG-AFTRA after the union called a strike against video game companies on July 25. The first workers demonstrated outside Warner Bros. . Disney building two weeks later. (Beyond Disney Character Voices Games and Warner Bros., the partnership currently boasts Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts and Insomniac Games, among others.)

“Our members rightly believe that, if we don’t have the right [AI] security in this contract, their ability to make a living in this business could be damaged during this contract, “said the chief executive of the union, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. “This is not something we can stand for.”

Signs reading “Game over” and “Time to fire AI” can be seen amid the chaos of Disney’s selection. According to Sarah Elmaleh (God of War Ragnarok, Halo Infinite), the chairman of the union’s negotiating committee regarding the agreement, “We went into these negotiations knowing that this issue exists and we would not have an agreement without it.” He adds that when the strike was called, “In the end we felt that we did everything we could” to reach an agreement.

According to SAG-AFTRA negotiations, video game companies would only agree to partial but “dangerously incomplete” AI proposals at the parties’ final negotiating session, which would have leaving the photographers and actors in great danger if they were to be carried out. A spokesperson for the video game companies denied that their proposal “directly responded to SAG-AFTRA’s concerns” and would provide “significant AI protections including non-consent and fair compensation.” to all players operating under the IMA,” Interactive Media Agreement. A spokesman called the contract language “among the strongest in the entertainment industry.”

SAG-AFTRA disagrees, and although union negotiators have engaged in “informal talks” with the company since the strike began on July 26, no real progress has been made on minimize distraction.

The tone of Thursday’s vote was fun, relaxed, with music playing and a drummer performing for voters along Olive Ave. In addition to SAG-AFTRA, members of the American Federation of Musicians, the labor union IATSE and the Writers Guild of America were present at Thursday’s ceremony. Burbank City Council member Konstantine Anthony (himself a member of SAG-AFTRA) and Writers Guild of America West board member Adam Conover can be seen in the crowd.

That simple attitude belied the lofty qualities the actors spoke of in conversation. Stunt actor and motion capturer Jasiri Booker (Spider-Man 2) called the possibilities represented by AI “terrifying.” He said, “If we just give [companies] an unprecedented amount of our data, not just any data, very good data, they can use our organization to create new plays over and over again… It could mean the end of this industry for the people who work in it. at least.” Booker hoped that the strike would end with the union “setting some kind of conditions, or at least getting in the door to continue these negotiations.”

Seth Allyn Austin, an actor and actress who works wellThe Last of Us part one and two) has said that video games have helped to inspire his work, as he was inspired at a young age by the movements of players in. Mortal Kombat, Spider-Man and Super Mario. He hopes to inspire the next generation of video game creators through his work. “The fact that that can be taken away because it’s cheaper to have an AI that generates my performance from data that I could train it to do, is an insult. It also destroys the enjoyment of the actors. those of the future,” he said.

SAG-AFTRA producers can still work in video games if the companies sign a Tiered-Budget Independent Interactive Media Agreement or Interim Interactive Media Agreement, which includes the AI ​​terms the union wants with major firms.

At one point during Thursday’s election, a dance broke out as rapper VIC’s “Wobble” played over the speakers. Addressing the crowd, Crabtree-Ireland said, “As you can see from the majority of members here, there is no lack of love. There is no lack of commitment. And we will continue to fight this battle until we have the protection we need in a video game contract.”

As for how you hope the public remembers the 2024 SAG-AFTRA video game strike years from now, long after it’s over? “No, I hope we say it was short,” he said.