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The advent of artificial intelligence has screwed over plenty of industries. Digital publishing, for one, was heavily impacted. It goes beyond just that though. Voice actors and writers in creative industries have been heavily affected, with their talents subject to training data and replication at the hands of machine learning. SAG AFTRA, an American labour union for actors in industry, has just announced another performer strike that begun today and Activision, Take-Two, Insomniac and Epic Games are among the affected.
The previous SAG AFTRA strike did not have devastating ramifications on the games industry, though this one places a bit more of an emphasis on the video game industry. Recent years have seen AI toppling paradigms in gaming; Embracer Free Mode is openly adopting it, while Wizards of the Coast has been admitted to using AI-generated assets recently too. That said, it’s the larger corporations that bear the brunt of the strike.
With titles such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and the next Grand Theft Auto scheduled for release within the next few years, alongside Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine game expected too, there’s a whole lot of possibility that these titles could see delays due to the strike.
“We’re not going to consent to a contract that allows companies to abuse A.I. to the detriment of our members. Enough is enough. When these companies get serious about offering an agreement our members can live — and work — with, we will be here, ready to negotiate,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher.
Audrey Cooling, a representative for the video game producers party to the Interactive Media Agreement has said the following: “We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations. We have already found common ground on 24 out of 25 proposals, including historic wage increases and additional safety provisions. Our offer is directly responsive to SAG-AFTRA’s concerns and extends meaningful AI protections that include requiring consent and fair compensation to all performers working under the IMA. These terms are among the strongest in the entertainment industry.”
As of Friday 26th July, selected voice acting work at Activision, Electronic Arts, Insomniac Games, Take-Two Productions, WB Games, Blindlight, Disney Character Voices, Formosa Interactive, Llama Productions, and Voice Works will stop.
Will GTA VI be affected by the SAG AFTRA strikes?
As of yet, it’s not confirmed which specific titles will be affected. All members of the SAG AFTRA union will be on strike, and the chances of big-ticket titles being affected are high. Inverse reports that Take-Two has declined to comment on the issue, though they have neither confirmed nor denied GTA VI’s status.
The SAG AFTRA website has embedded a tool allowing voice actors to check the status of affected games, though with specific production IDs it won’t tell you anything. I tested it against all of the possible code-names for GTA VI; Project Americas being the most likely. To my surprise, it ‘confirmed’ that GTA VI was affected, but I then decided to test with some mumbo-jumbo words instead and it also worked, suggesting that it was merely a glitch with the system.
Specifically focusing on Grand Theft Auto VI, various outlets had emphasised that it was specifically affected. However, a closer look at the terms of the strike reveals that games in production before ‘late last year’ – as Inverse puts it – are not affected.
Various news outlets had reported that GTA VI was affected, though these claims were quickly retracted. Responses to this information were generally quite inflammatory towards SAG AFTRA, who had been accused of intentionally delaying its release.
In terms of my own stance on the topic – SAG AFTRA and affected workers have my full support.
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