According to SAG AFTRA, the deal will “enable Replica to engage SAG-AFTRA members under a fair, ethical agreement to safely create and license a digital replica of their voice. Licensed voices can be used in video game development and other interactive media projects from pre-production to final release.”
The deal reportedly includes minimum terms and the requirement for performers’ consent to use their voice for AI.
However, several prominent video game voice actors were quick to respond on X, specifically to a portion of the statement which claims the deal was approved by “affected members of the union’s voiceover performer community.”
Apex Legends voice actor Erika Ishii wrote: “Approved by… WHO exactly?? Was any one of the ‘affected members’ who signed off on this a working voice actor?”
Yeah, I’m sure voice actors are just itching to sell away the rights for them to ever get work again.
In a statement to IGN, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, said, “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.
The only way I could see such deals going forward is on an individual basis. And they’d have to be limited severely. Such as requiring the voice actor to have actual scripted and recorded lines as a majority of their voice used in the work, limiting AI use of their voice to specifically outlined titles and only for specific dates (to prevent live service games extending rights out to forever), to have their data scrapped after use and/or their request, and to be paid on a basis of the amount of AI generated lines of their voice (or other voices generated using their data) akin to residuals.
Those limitations and more I’m not qualified to think up would allow studios to still use voice actors while relying on AI to change minor parts at the 11th hour, fill gaps or fix errors without trying to schedule new recording sessions. And specifically there needs to be STRONG protections in the union for any member who doesn’t wish to lend their voice to AI learning at all.
AI sucks at creativity. I think there is going to be a lot of crap out there that takes advantage of those willing to sell their voices away, but good games will need a combination for a good while yet, and a deal that looks something like what you’ve sketched out, where voice actors are compensated as well as they are now, or slightly better, per game that uses their voice, many will sign up, even if it’s less work overall.
There will be games advertised AI-free before long, and if I was a leader in the industry, I’d be trying to give a bit more celebrity status to voice actors. I already know the names of dinnere of my favorites, like Ashley Birch, Jennifer Hale, Nolan North, Kimiko Glenn, Matt Mercer (and the whole Critical Role crew, especially Ashley Johnson), and the list goes on. I would buy games just because they were advertised as featuring these folks and more so if I heard from them they’d be treated well.
AI is inevitable. I just hope people continue to push hard against the enshittification of everything.
