How Harrison Ford brought a strike over video game AI to the world’s attention

 

 "In a document sent to members, SAG-AFTRA claims that the companies are seeking a variety of loopholes, including the classification of motion capture work as “data” rather than “performance”, and limiting protections only to performance work carried out after a new deal has been ratified. “It turns out the employers would like to be able to use all past game performances, and any external material, without consent or compensation,” says Elmaleh. “That means anything else you’ve performed in, TV or film-wise, anything you’ve put on social media, any interviews, anything they can ingest that’s already out there on the internet – all of that could be fair game. This fight certainly affects all actors, no matter the category …

“If we don’t right now reject the assertion that performance as a concept can be flattened and dissolved into ‘data’, then the environment will be all the richer for abuse and exploitation across the board. Can you imagine telling Charlie Chaplin he wasn’t giving a performance – that he was just [creating] film, the material he was captured on? It sounds absurd in that context, but because digital tools and language are novel and abstract and often mysterious to people, bosses will say such things with an absolutely straight face.”"

read report by KEITH STUART

How Harrison Ford brought a strike over video game AI to the world’s attention | Games | The Guardian