It's happening again: Videogame voice and motion capture actors in the SAG-AFTRA union are going on strike. Over 160,000 performers will refuse to work on new games in production at a number of major developers, including Activision, Disney, and EA, until the companies agree to a contract with "critical AI protections" for union members. The strike officially begins on July 26.
The voice actors, who authorized the strike with a 98.32% "yes" vote, want big game makers to inform the union when they plan to use generative AI in a way that would replace the work of actors, and to negotiate compensation when they want to generate material based on an actor's voice or likeness.
