Speaking at SXSW over the weekend, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, National Executive Director at SAG-AFTRA, has revealed that it is “likely” a strike between video game studios and actors will happen following a year of negotiations.
The sticking point this time around appears to be based around artificial intelligence, with Crabtree-Ireland telling Fast Company’s Brendan Vaughan that he believes there is “50/50, or more likely than that we will go on strike in the next four to six weeks because of our inability tog et past these issues.”
We would not have succeeded, any more than any union ever in history has been able to stop technology. Unions that try that approach, they fail and they give up the chance to influence how those technologies are implemented. The fact of matter is, we’re going to have AI.
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Back in September 2023, around 98% of SAG-AFTRA members voted in favour of striking against video game companies such as Activision, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Take-Two, and WB Games. Crabtree-Ireland went on to say that that the union’s position on AI centres on “consent and compensation” for its members when AI tech utilise their work.
We want to make sure the implementation is human-centered and focused on augmentation [of production], not replacement of people.
[Source – Variety]