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Video game performers will go on strike over artificial intelligence concerns
Channel 3000 News/AP ^ | July 26, 2024 | AP Staff

Posted on 07/26/2024 7:02:23 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

“The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as “data.”

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

“We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can,” Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

(Excerpt) Read more at channel3000.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; US: California
KEYWORDS: ai; california; losangeles; strike
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Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected.
1 posted on 07/26/2024 7:02:23 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Another strike 🪧, eh? Oh, well.


2 posted on 07/26/2024 7:03:19 AM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: No name given

Wow, clueless. The factory is going to be automated and these line workers won’t be going back to the production line.


3 posted on 07/26/2024 7:04:56 AM PDT by glorgau
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To: FRiends

Hands off my Pokemon, AI! ;)

Top 20 Must Watch Anime Classics of All Time:

https://myanimelist.net/featured/1055/Top_20_Must_Watch_Anime_Classics_of_All_Time


4 posted on 07/26/2024 7:05:07 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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To: No name given

I can see where game developers would go on strike, but an actor? Gaming Developers for video games or computer games are on the way out and AI will definitely take their jobs away.

All the up-and-coming young folks that think they’re going to make lots of money developing games... need to start looking at other options.


5 posted on 07/26/2024 7:08:57 AM PDT by Clutch Martin ("The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right." )
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To: Clutch Martin
Gaming Developers for video games or computer games are on the way out and AI will definitely take their jobs away.

Maybe some of the grunts, not the real talent. AI in programming video games has to be guided and checked. Maybe not as much as in Enterprise DB development, but it can go sideways unexpectedly. Also, it will have the tendency to make everything look and play similarly, which has already been a problem as people have been using canned routines for decades.

I think for the most part, it will change, but not eliminate most jobs in development.
6 posted on 07/26/2024 7:14:16 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: Clutch Martin
Gaming Developers for video games or computer games are on the way out and AI will definitely take their jobs away.

Perhaps you're right, but I'm hesitant to join you in saying AI will destroy software development. Ever since I became a hobby programmer at 14 I've heard that this or that new IDE or code-assist feature would make coding so easy that programmers would lose work. Countless times in my career it's been just around the corner that managers would be able to make code without having to hire a programmer. But the demand for software kept increasing more than the dev tools made programming easier.

So far, the main forces against programmer jobs are 1) stock bubbles built on tech mania running out of air, and 2) H1b visas.

7 posted on 07/26/2024 7:20:07 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Clutch Martin

I have a friend who put his kid through college doing voice work for video games. Video game acting can pay as much as a major motion picture. Consider that a top video game can pull in $1B on its first day. It takes a long time for movies to hit that level.

Gaming isn’t something I ever enjoyed that much. But its a HUGE worldwide business.


8 posted on 07/26/2024 7:21:03 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (Don’t vote for anyone over 70 years old. Get rid of the geriatric politicians.)
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To: glorgau
The factory is going to be automated and these line workers won’t be going back to the production line.

They can learn to code.....wait, what?

These changes are completely inevitable, striking will only accelerate the process.

9 posted on 07/26/2024 7:28:11 AM PDT by usurper (AI was born with a birth defect.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

I totally get their concerns and am with them.

The problem is that this will only accelerate their replacement by AI. ANYONE with a public presence-—face, voice, whatever-—is going to become a victim of this stuff unless very well-designed laws are put in place now to protect personal capital.


10 posted on 07/26/2024 7:32:20 AM PDT by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually." Jimi Hendrix)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

In a diverse nation and globalized economy, individual appearance will eventually not be a decisive factor.

If I lived in the Bronx, the protagonist might be a handsome black guy.

Attractive college students might get paid $100 each for providing their image and voice for AI use.


11 posted on 07/26/2024 7:33:40 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (*** Help Trump, fund Republican candidates: https://ballotpedia.org/U.S._House_battlegrounds,_2024)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
Games and movie companies are ill prepared for the rise of hobbyist and small companies that will put out movies and games out of their garages.

Every single second, development gets better and faster. Entire ecosystems of products and cinema will be produced at home.

The NeoLuddite blow back is just starting, the wave of AI/System production will wash away humans in many areas.

12 posted on 07/26/2024 7:39:39 AM PDT by Theoria
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Air Traffic Controllers


13 posted on 07/26/2024 7:45:05 AM PDT by WeaslesRippedMyFlesh (there will come a day when FR rejects articles from the NYT, et. al. as "Commie trash, no thank you")
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Revolt of the NPCs ?


14 posted on 07/26/2024 7:52:23 AM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too." - Robert Conquest )
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To: Brian Griffin
Motion capture performer Jade Blue Afterglow (X-files) goin' on strike.
15 posted on 07/26/2024 7:58:13 AM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: Theoria

It’s getting scary out there, Theoria. I just cloned my own voice to AI for my YouTube videos. It’s perfectly identical. I can now see how politicians, CEOs, and celebrities can be set up or blackmailed.


16 posted on 07/26/2024 8:05:16 AM PDT by LittleBillyInfidel (This tagline has been formatted to fit the screen. Some content has been edited.)
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To: LS

” ANYONE with a public presence-—face, voice, whatever-—is going to become a victim of this stuff unless very well-designed laws are put in place now to protect personal capital.”

📌Revelation 📖 The “mark” coming, worldwide.


17 posted on 07/26/2024 8:09:05 AM PDT by Varsity Flight ( "War by 🙏 the prophesies set before you." I Timothy 1:18. Nazarite warriors. 10.5.6.5 These Days)
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To: No name given

Isn’t this something? With all the chaos & confusion that abounds in the world today, we now are supposed to worry about problems within the video game industry.


18 posted on 07/26/2024 8:15:09 AM PDT by oldtech
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To: Vermont Lt

I remember when Halo 3 came out. First day sales were greater than NY Yankee ticket sales for the season.


19 posted on 07/26/2024 8:28:55 AM PDT by alternatives?
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

With Woke and politically correct programing, people are starting to be more interested in board games. Maybe Panzer Blitz will make a comeback.


20 posted on 07/26/2024 8:30:32 AM PDT by alternatives?
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