Hollywood video game actors want to avoid a strike. Artificial intelligence is the sticking point in their discussions.

LOS ANGELES For more than a year and a half, Hollywood actors' union leaders have been negotiating with video game companies for a new contract that covers the performers who bring their titles to life.

But while negotiators from the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have made progress in negotiations over wages and job security in their video game contract, or interactive media agreement, Leaders say discussions have stalled on a key issue: protections over the use of artificial intelligence.

This is the main obstacle to reaching a deal, and this area of ​​contracting has been around for some time, said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, executive director of SAG-AFTRA. The fundamental problem, at present, is the lack of willingness of this negotiating group to provide an equal level of protection against the dangers of AI to all our members.

Union leaders say they are not completely anti-AI. But voice actors and others in the video game industry worry that unchecked use of AI could provide game makers with a way to displace them by training an AI to mimic an actor’s voice or create a digital replica of their image without their consent.

In some cases, the role of an AI voice is often invisible and used to clean up a recording in the later stages of production or to make a character sound older or younger at a different stage of their virtual life.

“Our concern is that all this work only serves to fuel the mill that moves us,” said Sarah Elmaleh, president of the interactive negotiation committee. They don't need to remind us, you don't need to be told what they used your material to create. »

The union has left one last option in its battle for a contract: calling a strike. Crabtree-Ireland said the union hopes to avoid a work stoppage, but will do everything in its power to ensure our members are treated fairly.

Anyone who thinks that we are afraid to strike, or that we will not strike, is clearly not paying attention, he added.

SAG-AFTRA members voted to give executives the power to strike video game companies in September. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel union strikes last year, which lasted four months.

Scott Lambright, an actor who has voiced monsters and non-player characters in games, said AI could threaten jobs by making it cheaper to use a generated voice, while diminishing the quality of voice acting as an art.

Emotionally, it's going to be superficial, he said.

AI could also deprive some actors of the opportunity to get smaller background roles, like NPCs, where they can hone their talent before getting bigger roles, Lambright said.

Having these roles gives you the confidence to take on a bigger role, he said. And if you don't have access to NPC roles, telling a small part of a story… you won't have any confidence in leading something.

The last interactive contract, negotiated in 2017, did not include protections around AI. The agreement covers more than 2,500 “off-camera (voiceover), on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers and background performers,” according to the union.

The negotiating group of major video game producers is willing to put in place protections for voice actors, SAG-AFTRA said, but will not go so far as to include other artists, including stunt and voice actors. motion capture.

Video game companies covered by the interactive agreement include Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc. and WB Games Inc.

Audrey Cooling, a spokeswoman for the companies, said they were negotiating in good faith and had made tremendous progress.

“We have reached tentative agreements on the vast majority of proposals and remain optimistic that we will be able to reach an agreement soon,” Cooling said in an emailed statement.

Amid tense negotiations, SAG-AFTRA in February created a new, separate contract that covers independent and low-budget video game projects. The Tiered Budget Independent Interactive Media Agreement contains some of the AI ​​protections that the video game industry giants have rejected.

The union also announced a side deal with AI voice company Replica Studios in January. The deal, which SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher called a great example of AI used well, allows major studios to work with union actors to create and license a digital replica of their voice. It sets out conditions that also allow artists to choose not to use their voice in perpetuity.

This type of agency is why contractual protections are important, said Tim Friedlander, president of the National Association of Voice Actors.

There is no technology yet to monitor what is happening with actors' audio files. It's unclear whether decades of recordings have ever been used to train AI models. Artists, he said, essentially send their audio files to the person who recorded them and trust that person to ensure those recordings “will be safe.”

Uncontrolled AI can lead to ethical questions, particularly when it comes to a so-called synthetic voice generating voice work that the original actor might not morally agree with.

If my voice is out there… doing something I wouldn’t say, I’m now potentially in conflict with myself. Now I’m losing my job because of my own voice,” Friedlander said.

Sarah Parvini is a technology writer at AP.