Hollywood actors union signs first big deal for AI in voice-over work

By Thomas Buckley

The Screen Actors Guild, which represents 160,000 film and TV actors, signed a deal requiring consents and guaranteed minimum payments when members’ voices are replicated digitally in video games and other entertainment. 
 

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s executive director, announced the agreement Tuesday with Replica Studios, which describes itself as an ethical artificial intelligence voice company. He spoke at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
 

The use of AI became a focal point of strikes by writers and actors strikes that paralysed production of films and TV shows for several months last year. Unions representing both groups ultimately reached assurances from studios on job protections from the use of AI, as well as pay increases. 
 

Shreyas Nivas, co-founder and chief executive officer of Replica, said the agreement will be a “big benefit to talent and a big benefit to studios” by providing a framework for use of AI in the production of video games. 
 

Nivas said production of one of his favorite games, Red Dead Redemption 2, would have materially sped up if some of the 5,000 lines of dialogue had been generated by AI based on actors’ earlier voice recordings.