SAG-AFTRA’s New AI Voice Deal Takes Video Game Actors By Surprise

The SAG-AFTRA has announced a new deal for AI voice acting, that seems to have hit a problem: its members didn’t know about it.

As reported by Video Games Chronicle, several voice actors, notably people who have done this work in video games, have pointed out that they were not aware of this deal being penned down, and also seem to have been taken unaware that it was even being negotiated on.

Erika Ishii, who voices Valkyrie in Apex Legends, said: “Approved by… WHO exactly?? Was any one of the ‘affected members’ who signed off on this a working voice actor?”

Elias Toufexis, who voiced Sam Coe in Starfield, said: “I would humbly consider myself one of the top voice actors working in games. No one asked me about this. No one reached out for my opinion.”

Even Xander Mobus, the announcer in the Super Smash Bros video game franchise since 2014, was irate. He said:

“Fucking…who?! Did any of y’all approve this? I didn’t get told we were voting on this. SAG leadership, please, I’m begging you, stop showing your ass and do something to keep us working. Ya know? Your job? You ain’t licensors, you are a labor union! The hell y’all doing!?”

The SAG-AFTRA, in turn, shared this statement to IGN:

“Our AI deal with Replica Studios is an important step in ensuring the ethical application of these technologies in a way that ensures the use of members’ voices occurs only with informed consent and fair compensation.

This is a deal that covers one company, with regard to the development of video games. This deal does not impact our IMA negotiations.

Rather, it sets a model for our industry, building on the terms approved by 80% of our members just a month ago, and we hope to see more companies adopting agreements like this one.”

So the SAG-AFTRA may have been too enthusiastic in the press for this deal, leading to a lot of misinterpretation. For those unaware, IMA stands for Interactive Media Agreement, and specifically refers to the deal the union is making on behalf of actors in the video game industry. So they’re saying that this deal is a relatively minor one with one AI company, and not the big deal that they’re still working on with the video game industry as a whole.

But this does not answer the questions these voice actors are asking. Last November, the SAG-AFTRA managed to get over 90 % of its members to approve a strike order. Although they did not move forward with an actual strike, obviously the union is more than capable of getting in contact with their members for things like this.

So why weren’t members like these three famous actors in the industry get asked about this? This goes without saying, but this was even a bigger issue for less famous and established actors in video games.

The SAG-AFTRA definitely needs to explain this a bit more, as their own members are questioning if they are really acting with their best interests at heart.