Voice Actor Jennifer Hale on Video Game Strike and AI Fears: ‘You’re Using Technology to Take Away Our Ability to Feed Our Kids’

[Fenton]

Currently, the gaming industry is at a halt after SAG-AFTRA called a strike against the major video game publishers on July 25.

"AI is coming for all of us," Hale says. "Because the truth is, AI is just a tool like a hammer. If I take my hammer, I could build you a house. I can also take that same hammer and I can smash your skin and destroy who you are."

Hale emphasizes the existential nature of the conflict makes this strike particularly difficult. She says SAG-AFTRA's latest counter offer to video game companies has been included in the current interim agreement signed by nearly 70 developers.

The actor explains how the National Association of Voice Actors has gone before Congress with congressional bills such as the "NO FAKES Act," which would protect people's voice and visual likeness against generative AI. She urges fans to call their representatives to vote for bills like this.

"If you use something that originated in our body or our voices, can we please get paid?" Hale says. "Because now you're using technology to take away our ability to feed our kids."

"What I wish everyone would do was keep asking the actual question, which is, 'there's a lot of money being made here. Where is it going?' And in the current setup, the way our system operates, and this whole idea of shareholder supremacy, it's flowing to the 1%. If you flow so much money, you can't even feed the people who made it possible."

Voice Actor Jennifer Hale on Video Game Strike and AI Fears: ‘You’re Using Technology to Take Away Our Ability to Feed Our Kids’

Voice actor Jennifer Hale on the SAG-AFTRA video game strike and AI fears.

variety.com