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Video game performers will go on strike over artificial intelligence concerns

Hollywood’s video game performers voted to 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 studios will not make a deal over the regulation of generative AI. 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.

MeekerThanBeaker ,

Main voices and significant side characters of the story, I agree. But for some random NPCs that just add to the ambience of the environment, I think A.I can fill those roles. It just would be too cost prohibitive to hire actors for every single character voice. The developers would just not do it or they just repeat the same dialogue over and over again and that gets monotonous.

I say this as a writer who also used to work in videogames.

Stopthatgirl7 OP ,
@Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world avatar

Aren’t those minor roles exactly how people get their start in voice acting and start building up their resumes? Actors have to have a place to get their start, too.

MeekerThanBeaker ,

I’m not talking about what is currently available. I’m talking about the future in gaming. Worlds are growing. You can’t have like 5,000 unique actors in a game world… nor dialogue being written for all of them. The amount of dialogue writers would have to come up with is astronomical.

There will be games where you’ll go to full restaurant and walk around various tables where they’re will be dialogue that means nothing to the story but adds to the environment. Or just random people walking down the street.

Then there will be times where a small side character you approach will give you a side mission… those are the ones you’ll want live actors for.

Game companies will lose money if they had to pay everyone for what the future holds.

Or the alternative would be… They just wouldn’t do it. Same amount of jobs are created. Probably fewer jobs as you wouldn’t need to test as much.

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

Actors can play multiple roles, you know, and often do

MeekerThanBeaker ,

Really?

You’re not understanding me, but that’s okay.

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

I understand that you don’t know how video games are made. But that’s fine.

the_crotch ,

Yeah, and in oblivion hearing the same 6 voices from hundreds of characters really took away from the immersion

Stopthatgirl7 OP ,
@Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world avatar

I’m not talking about what is currently available. I’m talking about the future in gaming.

So am I. Where are the future voice actors who wolud voice the major roles going to come from if the jobs they depend on to start out and get their foot in the door/build up their resumes at the beginning of their careers are gone?

MCasq_qsaCJ_234 ,

The government could provide subsidies or tax exemptions to companies that do not use AI in films, series, audios and video games.

sunzu ,

Yes taxpayers should subsidize corpos head count

🤡🤡🤡

MagicShel ,

It seems likely that AI will become so ubiquitous that we’d have to start drawing arbitrary lines. Can I use a picture on a wall on a live set that was drawn by AI? Can I use AI to sync an actor’s lips to an ADR line change? How much AI crosses the line?

I’m just not sure this genie can be put back in the bottle. That said, human art is better. Human acting is better. Human writers are better. I feel like overuse of AI will show in the quality of the product.

The question is are Netflix and Bethesda going to fill their catalog with AI garbage because it’s cheap and audiences don’t care anyway? I go to the PS store and look at the human made garbage on there for $.50, and I think maybe. Maybe enough people don’t care about quality of the product if it’s cheap enough. But I don’t think so.

MeekerThanBeaker ,

The same voice jobs they do now. I am not taking about those type of jobs. And actors should fight for those. I’m talking about where the future of video games are headed.

It will be impossible to do with actors. I don’t care how many voices they can do. It will be impossible to do with writers too. There will just be too much to write.

People just can’t say… AI = bad. It’s a losing battle.

Stopthatgirl7 OP ,
@Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world avatar

No voice actors, no writers…the future you’re envisioning for gaming completely sucks.

MeekerThanBeaker ,

At what point did I ever say no voice actors and no writers? In fact, I said the exact opposite.

DmMacniel ,
@DmMacniel@feddit.org avatar

Next up writers being replaced by AI, because all that side content is just tedious and expensive to write for being just random stuff.

Good luck with that stance then.

MeekerThanBeaker ,

I agree. That will also need to happen. It’s impossible for writers to write what will be needed in the future of gaming.

Imagine something like GTA where you are able to enter any building and any room within it and there will be NPCs in most of them. How are you going to write for all of that, never mind act?

drunkpostdisaster ,

It’s over for artists of all types saddly

radivojevic ,

Decades ago, Hand drawn animators go on strike because computers make it faster and require less skill.

DmMacniel ,
@DmMacniel@feddit.org avatar

I prefer hand drawn animations over 3d/2d generated slop any day.

dustyData ,

So, you don’t know how animation works, got it.

radivojevic ,

How does animation work?

dustyData ,

Making a simple scene requires the making of models and background or environment. The environment has to be made separately. A model requires the actual 3d models geometry, rigging (in order for the geometry to move), textures to give the model a surface, and an animator which blocks the movement frame by frame. Then you’d also need someone exclusively animating the camera, and depending on the production pipeline a different process of making special effects and shaders to treat the illumination and materials. Some of these parts can be made by the same person but usually, specially in high quality productions, a different highly trained specialist will handle each part separately. Each is an art form that requires lots of education, skills and hours of labor to make.

For instance, the most recent spider man animated film, Across the Spider-Verse, took roughly 5 years to produce. For contrast, Snow White, the first animated film took roughly 4 years to make. Just because something is computer animated doesn’t mean it was easier or took less time to make. Most computer animators receive training in classical 2d animation, as most basic skills and principles are transferrable. Also, most 3d animated films today include a lot of digital 2d work to achieve the artists desired vision.

radivojevic ,

i think you must have misinterpreted my comment and its meaning.

I was referring to hand drawn animation… like, Snow White from 1937.

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

That’s not at all what happened.

radivojevic ,

What happened then?

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

I am not responsible for your education

radivojevic ,

So it’s your opinion. Got it.

Samvega ,

Ah! So if I say “I’m not responsible for demonstrating gravity,” then it no longer exists, and we started floating into space? Fascinating.

radivojevic ,

If I ask you to prove your statement and you don’t then you are immediately right and we start floating into space? Fascinating.

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

Still trying to make your ignorance my responsibility

radivojevic ,

Still trying to make people think you’re not ignorant.

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

Someone using the “I know you are but what am I” defense isn’t really in a position to comment on another person’s knowledge or intelligence.

radivojevic ,

That’s your opinion, which is the only thing you have to give.

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

Judging by all the downvotes all of your comments here have been getting, it seems that you’ve demonstrated it as fact. And everyone seems to agree.

And all you have to offer is petty emptiness. Another thing you’ve proven.

radivojevic ,

I have votes turned off because I don’t care

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

Whatever you have to tell yourself so you can sleep at night, lol

Samvega ,

Decades ago, Hand drawn animators go on strike

Decades hence, you will still messed up tense in your writing.

radivojevic ,

Timeline, headline.

Correct.

henfredemars ,

We need humans in the economy, and art is our soul. I don’t want to see our artists replaced by robots.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

It's a process that's been going on for a long time. It used to be that if you wanted to listen to music you needed a human artist to physically play it for you, but recordings have been normalized for so long that nobody gives it a second thought.

Heck, this is computer games we're talking about. Much of the performance is inherently "robotic" on some level already.

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

In no way, at all, is this even remotely the same same thing

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

That's not what people said back when recorded music first became prevalent.

Eventually the current hue and cry over AI voice actors will likely subside too.

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

That was also, in no way at all, even remotely similar to what we’re discussing here.

But your continued parade of ignorance is somewhat amusing

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

I wrote:

It used to be that if you wanted to listen to music you needed a human artist to physically play it for you, but recordings have been normalized for so long that nobody gives it a second thought.

Yes, this is exactly what we're talking about.

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

Thank you for confirming my previous comments

MCasq_qsaCJ_234 ,

This is how generations have been, they usually don’t accept new things, be it culture, technology or fashion, because it breaks their routine. AI is not going to disappear, because it is a technology as old as computing, the closest thing is that an AI winter will come (it has happened several times to a greater or lesser extent).

But this only affects the US, because in other countries it remains the same without strikes, and I think this will encourage more subcontracting in countries like India, China, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, because they are cheaper. Unless the government starts giving subsidies or updates the Berne Convention.

friend_of_satan ,

I fully support them, but it is a sad irony that the dystopian cyberpunk stories they told are starting to come true, and they are probably the protagonists.

What would JC Denton do?

GTKashi ,

Apparently he would do all three of becoming a cybernetic dictator ruler of the illuminati, while also plunging humanity into a dark age without technology, but also connect them all to one consciousness.

Reverendender ,

I mean, we’ve all been there

Karyoplasma ,

He would go to Wan Chai market and get drunk on forty and wine.

DmMacniel ,
@DmMacniel@feddit.org avatar

I wonder how AI Bros will defend Hollywood in this instance.

MagicShel , (edited )

What makes you think they would? I might be considered that by some and I don’t want AI used in place of real actors because human actors bring something unique to their performances an AI never could. If the actor agrees to allow an AI mimic due to scheduling problems for ADR or whatever, they should get paid every cent they would’ve been if they’d recorded it themselves.

Maybe I’m not AI Bro enough to be on the wrong side of this.

MCasq_qsaCJ_234 ,

There are many types of AI Bros. They can be researchers who like to explore and develop the potential of AI, others who like to see AI-related research and like to explain how AI works to people who are not into the subject. Finally, there are those who say you can make money with a few steps or by doing nothing.

DmMacniel ,
@DmMacniel@feddit.org avatar

And I mean the latter. Just like Tech Bros and NFT Bros being in it just for the easy money while disregarding the potential damage.

MagicShel ,

others who like to see AI-related research and like to explain how AI works to people who are not into the subject

This. And I’m fairly out of step with the zeitgeist as far as AI “plagerism” goes.

But I don’t think AI is a replacement for an actual human, nor do I think it should be. Or could be. It’s a toy. It’s a tool, but it is not a product because it is inherently unreliable and inferior, and given the limitations of the current technology I believe it always will be - at least until they build something completely different from the current technology.

pearsaltchocolatebar ,

Wouldn’t this just make them invest more heavily in AI so this can’t happen a second time?

MCasq_qsaCJ_234 ,

Well, this strike only affects the video game industry in the United States. The video game industries in other countries are still going and can use AI in development, we just have to see how this plays out in the future.

For example, in the future, if American actors decide to participate in Chinese or Indian video games and they use AI, they will have to accept the terms that the developer wants in their project or let someone else take their role.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

Yup. It'll also be handy knowing that you'll never have an AI actor get "cancelled" for whatever random reason might come along.

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