Anger as SAGAFTRA Strikes Deal for AI Voice Acting in Video Games
Audible gasps.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, is an American labour union that represents some 160,000 media professionals. The organisation recently fought for the rights of Hollywood actors in their battle against AI and signalled it would do the same for performers in the video game industry. But even more recently (yesterday, at CES), it announced a "groundbreaking" agreement with an AI voice studio called Replica, which some of the industry's top talent see as a betrayal.
According to the union, this new agreement "paves the way for professional voiceover artists to safely explore new employment opportunities for their digital voice replicas with industry-leading protections tailored to AI technology." In addition, moving forward, it will "enable Replica to engage SAG-AFTRA members under a fair, ethical agreement to safely create and license a digital replica of their voice." SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said of the agreement: "We are so happy to partner with Replica Studios because this is a great example of AI being done right."
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