Video game performers are on strike — and AI is the sticking point

If you're not entrenched in the world of video games, you might not realize how much real actors have to do with modern gaming.

They provide everything from a few lines of dialogue for side characters in games, to recording hundreds or even thousands of very emotional lines, says Michigan State professor Amanda Cote, who studies the industry and culture of gaming.

"So really storyline-driven games, something like Mass Effect or a Far Cry, you're recording hundreds of lines of dialogue to cover the many different storyline branches that a player could potentially encounter. And you're trying to make sure that all of those make sense with the changing storyline," she says.

"This isn't like a movie where there's one version of the script and you might do several takes of it, but the overall story is the same. This is recording potentially different endings, different storyline arcs, making sure that those all stay coherent with how your character might develop along those different lines."

There are also performance capture artists – they wear bodysuits with sensors and their movements are captured digitally on camera, which later gets computerized.

Some of the biggest game studios rely on voice and performance capture artists, and all this adds up to big bucks. The video game industry made close to $185 billion last year.

But not everyone is happy.

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Generative AI is a sticking point

Video game performers are currently on strike.

Their union, SAG-AFTRA, had been in contract negotiations with major video game companies for more than a year and a half. Cote says performers are seeking things like clearer safety and protection measures — such as receiving a five minute break per hour of on-camera work, or having an on-set medic present when they're performing stunts — and that it appears the union and video game producers have found good terms on most of those issues.

But those talks have stalled over artificial intelligence.

Veronica Taylor is one of the many video game actors who are worried that the companies they work for could replace them with artificial intelligence or use their voices and motions in ways they did not consent to. She says it's already happening.

"I have found my voice in voice banks where people can take my voice and make it say things I've never said," she told NPR.

The companies say they offered AI protections, but union members say they don't extend to everyone.

Stunt performers and those whose motions are captured digitally are concerned that video game companies could create digital replicas of their physical work without their consent.

"What they are saying is that some of these performances, specifically for movement, is just data," says Andi Norris, a member of SAG-AFTRA's negotiating committee who has worked on games like Predator: Hunting Grounds. "I can crawl all over the floor and the walls as, you know, such-and-such creature, and they will argue that that is not performance, and so that is not subject to their AI protections."

She argues her work is not just a data point, it's done by her as a real person.

Performers who spoke to NPR say it's important to recognize that they aren't arguing that AI can never or should never be used in games — they just want to make sure that uses of AI are clear, understandable and compensated.

Members go on strike

Zeke Alton, who is also on the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee, says performers are the canary in the coalmine of the new technology.

"We are setting a precedent for how the workforce in both the United States and around the world is going to be treated," he says. "Are they going to use this new emergent technology as tools for creatives, and for workers, to create efficiency? Or is this tool going to be used by executives to remove the worker?"

Cote says generative AI is potentially destabilizing to the creative industries in general, but specifically in gaming.

"When we look at something like AI in live action settings, we run into the issue of the 'uncanny valley' where the face of an AI character looks just a little bit odd to us," he says. "But when we're thinking about industries like voice acting or motion capture, the work that performers do in that context is then attached to digital avatars in animation. So we don't get that 'uncanny valley' effect because the final result is a digital avatar. And so this may make the use of generative A.I. easier in games than other industries."

Video game voice and motion actors, whose human performances become computer data, say they are especially vulnerable to being replaced by generative AI. And their collective bargaining now will inform the ways we think about this technology going forward.

A spokesperson for the video game companies involved in the negotiations released a statement saying the companies and the union have already found common ground on 24 out of 25 proposals — and that they are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when they are close to a deal. The video game companies say they're prepared to resume negotiations.

Editor's note: Many NPR employees are members of SAG-AFTRA, but are under a different contract and are not on strike.