Dear Gossips,
Time for a creative industry labor relations update—SAG-AFTRA is striking against video game publishers.
The strike went into effect at 12:01 AM this morning and comes after over EIGHTEEN MONTHS of negotiations (and as the World of Warcraft team voted to unionize on the development side of the industry). Like, you cannot say they haven’t tried to make a deal, they’ve been trying for damn near two years. The sticking point is, you guessed it, protections against the use of AI in the game industry.
Video games utilize actors for vocal performances, but also for motion-capture and digital performance, too. SAG-AFTRA went on strike as recently as 2016 seeking better residuals for game performers, but just as with the Hollywood strikes last year, the encroachment of AI on human labor is the biggest issue for everyone now. I will just keep saying it—until we get super cool with stuff like universal basic income and a broad social safety net, we have to protect human jobs or else we’ll face steep unemployment, and no one is prepared for that.
There’s also the issue that it feels like we’re just one lawsuit away from the whole AI house of cards tumbling down. Here is but a sample of ongoing litigation relating to AI and copyright infringement. And it does feel like a house of cards, doesn’t it? I know that we’re coming to the end of the digital revolution and will soon be in whatever phase comes after that—we literally don’t even know yet—and that someday, probably sooner rather than later, there will be all kinds of generative tools that make our lives simpler (hopefully), but right now, AI feels like crypto feels like NFTs feels like bitcoin feels like Fyre Fest. It all feels like part of the same con. Someone’s getting rich off this but it’s not any of us.
Which is all the more reason to protect human labor. No one likes being on strike, it’s hard on everyone, and it’s not like the people who make their living voicing video games are making a mint. They’re just asking for the game companies to commit to hiring real people, not to use computers to shrink their industry. But just like the movie studios, the game companies don’t value human labor, they value the bottom line and f-ck anyone who’s just trying to make a living. It’s honestly exhausting. And it’s only going to get more exhausting when corporations start using AI to displace accountants and lawyers—more likely paralegals first—and healthcare workers. It’s only a matter of time. This isn’t just a Hollywood problem.
Live long and gossip,
Sarah
