Pay your performers: Video game actors go on strike for better A.I. protections

Storytelling is a way for us to briefly escape the trials of life. We turn to books, movies, and television shows to entertain ourselves, to be part of another world for a little while.

There’s no medium like video games when it comes to interacting with another world. Like movies or shows, video games are made possible by an extensive and talented crew.

Voice actors and motion capture artists have been fighting for years for proper compensation. Recently, A.I. usage has become another major problem. As of July 26, SAG-AFTRA went on strike against certain major video game companies such as Activision and Electronic Arts because they want to use performer’s likenesses without proper compensation or consent.

Imagine how unsettling it would be to see yourself doing something you never did, hear something you never said. Further, knowing that this is made from prior work and you’re not getting paid.

Performers should be able to consent to the role they’re playing. They should be paid for their time and effort.

There’s also disagreement about who qualifies as a performer. Studios don’t consider motion capture artists to be performers, so whatever protections performers get wouldn’t extend to them. Which is ridiculous because these artists are critical in bringing characters to life. They’re a part of giving characters their distinct personalities. They deserve the same protections as their voice acting counterparts.

Further, if studios are allowed to use these digital replicas, they would have no need to hire performers for background roles, which makes breaking into the industry that much harder.

Workers should always be fairly compensated for their work. SAG-AFTRA and the WGA went on strike last year for similar reasons. The human component in art can never be replaced; no machine can replicate it.

The argument of using A.I. to make various forms of art is larger than this one example. People should be able to create without fear of their work being scraped or stolen. People should be able to go into creative fields without fear of losing their job to a robot that could never compare.

Kai Spahr is a Buhler sophomore studying journalism and the Opinion Page Editor.

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