SAG-AFTRA makes an agreement with Replica, the AI voice company

[IKEA Cherry Chair]

SAG-AFTRA, the union responsible for protections of actors, voice actors, and radio stars, has made a deal with Replica to allow for voice actors to have AI of them speak their lines. According to the union, this "will enable Replica to engage SAG-AFTRA members under a fair, ethical agreement to safely create and license a digital replica of their voice." As of now, this has only been confirmed for interactive media, namely video games

 

Source: SAG-AFTRA themselves

https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-and-replica-studios-introduce-groundbreaking-ai-voice-agreement-ces

 

In my opinion, this is a mixed bag. Licensing out your voice still requires money for the voice actor, yet goes against what SAG-AFTRA would seem to have believed from AI.

Edited January 10 by IKEA Cherry Chair
Accidentally pressed submit in the middle of typing on mobile. Sorry!

[thechinchinsong]

24 minutes ago, IKEA Cherry Chair said:

SAG-AFTRA, the union responsible for protections of actors, voice actors, and radio stars, has made a deal with Replica to allow for voice actors to have AI of them speak their lines. According to the union, this "will enable Replica to engage SAG-AFTRA members under a fair, ethical agreement to safely create and license a digital replica of their voice." As of now, this has only been confirmed for interactive media, namely video games

 

Source: SAG-AFTRA themselves

https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-and-replica-studios-introduce-groundbreaking-ai-voice-agreement-ces

 

In my opinion, this is a mixed bag. Licensing out your voice still requires money for the voice actor, yet goes against what SAG-AFTRA would seem to have believed from AI.

I am interested in how this plays out. What will the licensing fees look like and how they would be implemented in different video games.

[dalekphalm]

Honestly they either need to embrace licensing voices and likenesses for AI use, or ban it. There's not much of a middle ground that will not cause much worse in the long run.

 

If the AI replica type services are here, it's going to be hard to put that back into pandora's box, so rather than letting these kinds of services destroy the VA industry, the least we can do is have the actual VA's get paid.

[Kanzaki Makoto]

On 1/10/2024 at 11:14 AM, IKEA Cherry Chair said:

SAG-AFTRA, the union responsible for protections of actors, voice actors, and radio stars, has made a deal with Replica to allow for voice actors to have AI of them speak their lines. According to the union, this "will enable Replica to engage SAG-AFTRA members under a fair, ethical agreement to safely create and license a digital replica of their voice." As of now, this has only been confirmed for interactive media, namely video games

 

Source: SAG-AFTRA themselves

https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-and-replica-studios-introduce-groundbreaking-ai-voice-agreement-ces

 

In my opinion, this is a mixed bag. Licensing out your voice still requires money for the voice actor, yet goes against what SAG-AFTRA would seem to have believed from AI.

I'm still not a fan of using AI voices for acting as it can sometimes sound off. But I agree with Dale's statement of seeing how everything turns out. Hopefully the Voices used for AI will be compensated properly for their use in games.

[dalekphalm]

On 1/11/2024 at 5:30 AM, Kanzaki Makoto said:

I'm still not a fan of using AI voices for acting as it can sometimes sound off.

Frankly it's just a matter of time until AI can perfectly imitate any voice it has enough data points on. Whether or not it will be a "good enough" replacement for an Actor for a full range of emotions (because it's more than just sounding like it, the actor makes creative choices for how a certain line sounds), is a different question.

On 1/11/2024 at 5:30 AM, Kanzaki Makoto said:

But I agree with Dale's statement of seeing how everything turns out. Hopefully the Voices used for AI will be compensated properly for their use in games.

Yeah exactly. Can't put the cat back into the bag, so might as well ensure that the VA's get properly paid for their likeness.

 

Though frankly, I think there should be regulations and limitations on using AI to replace paid creatives such as Voice Actors.