Video Game Actors Under SAG-AFTRA Go On Strike Over AI, Pay | MMORPG.com

System · July 27

Video Game Actors Under SAG-AFTRA Go On Strike Over AI, Pay | MMORPG.com

SAG-AFTRA actors cannot perform work for many major video games projects and interactive media, including promotional events, with some exceptions.

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Scot · July 27

"These come at a time when AAA studios expect nothing but exponential growth"

This is clearly incorrect and your link to cite this just goes to another one of your articles. All gaming has taken a knock in sales or from live service firstly on the down turn after covid and subsequently as gamers have turned away from new live service games.

During covid there was an increased hiring phase, after covid a shedding phase began, I also think this will continue as gamers are not as keen to jump into new live service titles as they once were. The tracker you linked only charts the post covid period of job layoffs, so it only shows the downturn period.

Obviously this is all quite separate from the arguments you put forward about voice acting, I just think there needs to be some recognition that this is not just "cutting corners", which undoubtedly has happened as well.

As I was only yesterday telling posters to stop doing posts in political areas I am now shutting up.

Angrakhan · July 27

As both a software developer and musician I've played with generative AI in both arenas. To call its use cutting corners may not be a fair assessment. I have found neither types of AI yet capable to replace the human. That's not to say it can't get there some day. However on the developer side what AI is good for is automating repetitive tasks.

"Based on this repository class in *class file path* can you generate me repositories for each database table in this list *text file of table names*"

It can do stuff like that pretty well. What it won't do very well is "build me a point of sale application for my business" or "add this new feature to my application". That's all way too generic and it's not going to turn out anything useful. You still need the human component to direct the AI to produce usable code, but it can make the human more efficient for those who practice using it.

On the music side it's honestly even less useful. You give it a style (rock, dance, classical) a duration, and some feeling words (happy, dark, uplifting, sad) and it will spit you out something. It might even sound good. However what you figure out pretty quickly is how derivative it all is. You generate 25 songs in the same genre, they're going to all sound pretty samey. It's similar to all that AI art you see where it all looks like the same artist created it. If you want to create music that has your signature sound AI is not going to provide that. You'll end up sounding like the thousands of other musicians doing the same thing.

Now what it is useful for is giving you a start. Inspiration. An idea especially when you've got writer's block, you can hit AI up just to give you a basic vibe and chord progression and then you take over from there. It's not completely worthless.

I have no idea how they're using it in voice acting. Although I've heard plenty of sophomoric human voice actors in games to think that the bar is pretty low to equal that. I wouldn't use it for main characters but if you wanted a city full of filler NPCs (Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 for example) with unique conversations I could see doing that with AI over hiring human actors to read through 10,000 of fluff dialogue lines that don't otherwise affect the game.

riningear · July 27

Scot said:

"These come at a time when AAA studios expect nothing but exponential growth"

This is clearly incorrect and your link to cite this just goes to another one of your articles. All gaming has taken a knock in sales or from live service firstly on the down turn after covid and subsequently as gamers have turned away from new live service games.

Should have clarified to mean in their profits - not gonna disagree that they might have overhired in the pandemic.

Nanfoodle · July 27

Elevators operators kept going on strike to get better pay and job security. In doing so, they invented the modern elevator that needed no operator.

Tractors changed farming. Entire towns were centered around the farming industry. Tractors put entire towns out of work.

AI maybe slowed down but it's going to change allot of industries. We won't be able to stop it. People are going to lose jobs.

GrimDogGaming · July 28

You'll be surprised how many "scabs" will turn out to be more talented and more willing to adapt than the striking unionists. These "artists" crying about AI have apparently never met a talented impressionist. Humans been stealing these "celebritities" voices long before AI was even a legitimate thought. I will reiterate: unions are solely to keep trash from being fired easily.

KnightFalz · July 28

Nanfoodle said:

Elevators operators kept going on strike to get better pay and job security. In doing so, they invented the modern elevator that needed no operator.

Tractors changed farming. Entire towns were centered around the farming industry. Tractors put entire towns out of work.

AI maybe slowed down but it's going to change allot of industries. We won't be able to stop it. People are going to lose jobs.

Such is the way of things. Automation cost some factory jobs. Computers cost some clerical jobs. AI will cost some creative jobs as it advances.

It is inevitable. Progress while beneficial to some is costly to others.

KnightFalz · July 28

GrimDogGaming said:

You'll be surprised how many "scabs" will turn out to be more talented and more willing to adapt than the striking unionists. These "artists" crying about AI have apparently never met a talented impressionist. Humans been stealing these "celebritities" voices long before AI was even a legitimate thought. I will reiterate: unions are solely to keep trash from being fired easily.

Job protection is one aspect of unions, but not the sole one.

Nanfoodle · July 28

KnightFalz said:

Nanfoodle said:

Elevators operators kept going on strike to get better pay and job security. In doing so, they invented the modern elevator that needed no operator.

Tractors changed farming. Entire towns were centered around the farming industry. Tractors put entire towns out of work.

AI maybe slowed down but it's going to change allot of industries. We won't be able to stop it. People are going to lose jobs.

Such is the way of things. Automation cost some factory jobs. Computers cost some clerical jobs. AI will cost some creative jobs as it advances.

It is inevitable. Progress while beneficial to some is costly to others.

With AI and robotics fast progression, Universal income will be needed one day.

emperorhades1 · July 28

Nanfoodle said:

KnightFalz said:

Nanfoodle said:

Elevators operators kept going on strike to get better pay and job security. In doing so, they invented the modern elevator that needed no operator.

Tractors changed farming. Entire towns were centered around the farming industry. Tractors put entire towns out of work.

AI maybe slowed down but it's going to change allot of industries. We won't be able to stop it. People are going to lose jobs.

Such is the way of things. Automation cost some factory jobs. Computers cost some clerical jobs. AI will cost some creative jobs as it advances.

It is inevitable. Progress while beneficial to some is costly to others.

With AI and robotics fast progression, Universal income will be needed one day.

Yes, and no. This will be some tin foil hat stuff here. Have you noticed how much our politicians and media have tried to divide everyone? Once Ai and robots are fully functional, not only will there not be a use for jobs and money, but people in general. Why would those in power want to keep people that require resources?

Cogohi · July 28

Angrakhan said:

As both a software developer and musician I've played with generative AI in both arenas. To call its use cutting corners may not be a fair assessment. I have found neither types of AI yet capable to replace the human. That's not to say it can't get there some day. However on the developer side what AI is good for is automating repetitive tasks.

Spot on. What LLM's are very good at is extremely narrow. Every codegen example I've seen haven't been much better than any of the old templated ones from a decade or two ago and often you'll get solutions that were directly lifted from Google, reddit, or Stack Overflow without any knowledge if it even worked.

My supervisor plugged in the major task of a project I was working on into CoPilot. Something like: "Write me an implementation of an X algorithm in Java" The answer? "Use Python or Ruby" *blink* wut?

We use LLM's for language processing which they're supposed to be really good at. The problem is that "really good" isn't good enough. We still need humans in the pipeline to catch and correct the output when it comes up with something dangerously wrong or insulting.

Angrakhan said:

...

I have no idea how they're using it in voice acting. Although I've heard plenty of sophomoric human voice actors in games to think that the bar is pretty low to equal that. I wouldn't use it for main characters but if you wanted a city full of filler NPCs (Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 for example) with unique conversations I could see doing that with AI over hiring human actors to read through 10,000 of fluff dialogue lines that don't otherwise affect the game.

Fun trivia fact: Carrie Fisher had a talent for writing smalltalk/filler dialog. Apparently this is a very uncommon skill.

Quizzical · July 28

What do the striking people even do? Are these just voice actors, or do they do other things, too?

Robokapp · July 28

Nanfoodle said:

KnightFalz said:

Nanfoodle said:

Universal income will be needed one day.

like social security but bigger?

ZenJelly · July 29

Nanfoodle said:

KnightFalz said:

Nanfoodle said:

Elevators operators kept going on strike to get better pay and job security. In doing so, they invented the modern elevator that needed no operator.

Tractors changed farming. Entire towns were centered around the farming industry. Tractors put entire towns out of work.

AI maybe slowed down but it's going to change allot of industries. We won't be able to stop it. People are going to lose jobs.

Such is the way of things. Automation cost some factory jobs. Computers cost some clerical jobs. AI will cost some creative jobs as it advances.

It is inevitable. Progress while beneficial to some is costly to others.

With AI and robotics fast progression, Universal income will be needed one day.

No. It should never be a thing. Ever.

namcost · July 29

who cares? I could give a funk less if voice actors boycott because of AI. DONT CARE. Because I don't want voice overs in my game anyway.... I can't stand voice overs. You have to sit there and listen to someone talk at the speed of a snail. when I can read the shit 100x faster and be done and back into the gameplay. Cutscenes are funking dumb. I play video games to PLAY them not to WATCH them. They aren't movies. And that crap meme needs to end already. Because im tired of games with bad story, horrible cutscenes, and too much voice over.... games have legit gone the wrong direction.

KnightFalz · July 29

Nanfoodle said:

KnightFalz said:

Nanfoodle said:

Elevators operators kept going on strike to get better pay and job security. In doing so, they invented the modern elevator that needed no operator.

Tractors changed farming. Entire towns were centered around the farming industry. Tractors put entire towns out of work.

AI maybe slowed down but it's going to change allot of industries. We won't be able to stop it. People are going to lose jobs.

Such is the way of things. Automation cost some factory jobs. Computers cost some clerical jobs. AI will cost some creative jobs as it advances.

It is inevitable. Progress while beneficial to some is costly to others.

With AI and robotics fast progression, Universal income will be needed one day.

Possibly so eventually.

KnightFalz · July 29

Quizzical said:

What do the striking people even do? Are these just voice actors, or do they do other things, too?

Not much if they are striking from what is normally a full-time occupation. I don't know what percentage of voice actors do so full time versus those that supplement their other income with occasional roles.

Scot · July 29

emperorhades1 said:

Yes, and no. This will be some tin foil hat stuff here. Have you noticed how much our politicians and media have tried to divide everyone? Once Ai and robots are fully functional, not only will there not be a use for jobs and money, but people in general. Why would those in power want to keep people that require resources?

Our countries are doing that already, they are called the unemployed, the future does not have to be dystopian you know, that's just a very overused Sci-Fi setting.

cheyane · July 29

In the end they give all the people assisted living with small amounts of money to keep them housed and fed like in the scifi stories while the world relies on AI. We are heading for that future. I'm glad I am an old woman and will die before I see this.

I feel bad for the children growing up now.

Slapshot1188 · July 29

cheyane said:

In the end they give all the people assisted living with small amounts of money to keep them housed and fed like in the scifi stories while the world relies on AI. We are heading for that future. I'm glad I am an old woman and will die before I see this.

I feel bad for the children growing up now.

Wall-E is coming. I have been saying this for years.

Scot · July 30

Slapshot1188 said:

cheyane said:

In the end they give all the people assisted living with small amounts of money to keep them housed and fed like in the scifi stories while the world relies on AI. We are heading for that future. I'm glad I am an old woman and will die before I see this.

I feel bad for the children growing up now.

Wall-E is coming. I have been saying this for years.

And people will be saying it for years after we have all gone and humanity is doing just fine.

Sandmanjw · July 30

`AI (real Artificial Intelligence) is, and always will be, fiction.

Robotics, computers and coding, will keep advancing of course. Eventually, what people call AI, which is code and data bases, will grow to the point that it will be able to mimic how people act, but it will still be just codes and databases being used to mimic. Not true Ai, which is what people fear.

These codes, data bases, and programs will continue to grow, and become so good that the people that use them will replace many jobs. Just the way of businesses.

Taking over, hunting down people? Heh, could makes armed drones do that now if people coded them to do so. Just tools. Always gonna be people, and the way that they use these tools, in the end, that matters.

These people just see the writing on the wall, same way the people that used to make horse and buggy whips, most likely did, when people made cars. Welcome to the future.

Vrika · July 30

Sandmanjw said:

`AI (real Artificial Intelligence) is, and always will be, fiction.

False.

We don't actually know if we'll be able to create one. Currently our best guess is that it looks a bit more probable than not, but won't be for a while yet.

Slapshot1188 · July 30

Scot said:

Slapshot1188 said:

cheyane said:

In the end they give all the people assisted living with small amounts of money to keep them housed and fed like in the scifi stories while the world relies on AI. We are heading for that future. I'm glad I am an old woman and will die before I see this.

I feel bad for the children growing up now.

Wall-E is coming. I have been saying this for years.

And people will be saying it for years after we have all gone and humanity is doing just fine.

I dont think so. I think its very close. In my lifetime. You will hear much more about Universal Basic Income in the next decade, which is a giant leap into the Wall-E world.

Sovrath · July 30

I wonder if the issue here is the that actors don’t want to do a part and then have a.i emulate their voice and they are not compensated.

Slapshot1188 · July 30

Sovrath said:

I wonder if the issue here is the that actors don’t want to do a part and then have a.i emulate their voice and they are not compensated.

I think thats the current issue, but I think a few years out it will be 100% synthesized voiceovers. We are at a real inflection point in certain areas.

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Video Game Actors Under SAG-AFTRA Go On Strike Over AI, Pay | MMORPG.com

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