Creative workers are fighting over AI consent and disclosure
In 2025 US video game actors ended a strike of nearly a year with a contract requiring consent and disclosure before a studio uses an AI copy of a performer. Most arguments since involve people that contract does not cover, such as writers and streamers.
Where it stands
SAG-AFTRA's members ratified the 2025 Interactive Media Agreement in July 2025, with consent and disclosure rules for AI copies and a 15.17% pay rise. Since then a former Saber Interactive writer has said she was replaced with ChatGPT, which Saber denies, and Twitch has switched on AI training for all streamers' content by default. Several studios admitted AI use only after being caught. A voice actors' campaign group says 80% of voice work falls outside any union contract.
Timeline
2024
The actors union signs its first AI voice deal for games
SAG-AFTRA, the American actors' union, signs an agreement with the AI voice company Replica Studios. It sets minimum pay and requires the performer's consent each time a copy of their voice is used in a new project.
Steam requires games to say when they use AI
Valve makes developers declare any use of generative AI when they submit a game to Steam, and shows the declaration on the game's store page.
Video game actors go on strike over AI
SAG-AFTRA members who do voice and motion-capture work for games strike from 26 July 2024. The dispute is over protection against AI copies of their performances.
2025
The union files a charge over Fortnite's AI Darth Vader
Epic Games adds a Darth Vader who speaks in an AI copy of James Earl Jones's voice, with his estate's consent. SAG-AFTRA files a labor charge anyway. Its argument is that consent does not remove the duty to bargain over uses that replace its members' work.
A studio apologizes for AI it did not disclose
The Polish developer 11 bit studios admits that its game The Alters shipped with AI-generated text left in by mistake and AI-translated subtitles, none of it declared. 'We should have simply let you know,' it says.
Actors ratify the new contract and the strike ends
Members approve the 2025 Interactive Media Agreement by 95.04% to 4.96%. It requires consent and disclosure before an AI copy of a performer is used, lets performers suspend that consent during a strike, and raises pay by 15.17% at once with three further rises of 3%.
An awards body takes back two prizes over a false no-AI declaration
The Indie Game Awards withdraws Game of the Year and Debut Game from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Its French studio, Sandfall Interactive, had agreed on entry that no generative AI was used, and later confirmed that it was.
2026
A former writer says Saber replaced her with ChatGPT
Stella Sacco, formerly lead writer on Saber Interactive's Rideshare Stimulator, says she was replaced with ChatGPT partway through development and that the game's passenger voices are AI, with nothing declared on Steam. Saber denies replacing any writer with AI. Within days it adds a long AI disclosure to the store page, covering voice generation, some translation and AI-made missions.
Twitch opts every streamer in to AI training
Twitch adds a setting called 'Training for generative AI' and switches it on by default, so every streamer's content can be used to train Amazon's models unless they turn it off. 'If this was opt-in, nobody would opt in,' its product chief says. A streamer files a class action against Twitch and Amazon the following week.
EA confirms AI-generated commentary in NHL 27
John Buccigross, the play-by-play voice of EA's NHL 27, says on a podcast that EA played him AI-generated lines in his own voice. EA confirms it, saying both commentators gave their full consent and also recorded more than 50 sessions in person.
A Tokyo court says a voice can be a publicity right
The Tokyo District Court holds on 30 September 2026 that a person's voice, like their likeness, can fall within the protection of publicity rights, in a suit by the voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda seeking removal of TikTok videos that imitated his voice with generative AI. It dismisses the removal claim, because the videos had already been taken down, and does not rule on whether they infringed. It is reported as the first Japanese ruling to treat voice this way.
Jagex pulls a RuneScape trailer made with generative AI by a contractor
Jagex shows a trailer for RuneScape 3's Dragon Slayer 2 quest at RuneFest in October 2026, players identify generative AI imagery in it from a six-fingered knight, and the studio pulls the trailer and apologizes. Jagex says the work was made by a trusted external partner, so the AI reached a published trailer through a contractor rather than through the studio's own pipeline.
Consequences
012025
Game companies now owe actors what film and TV do
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who led the union's negotiation, says the contract closes the loop with the rest of entertainment on informed consent and fair pay for AI copies. Sarah Elmaleh, who chaired the negotiating committee, calls the right to suspend consent during a strike the linchpin, because without it a performer's own copy could be used to break their strike.
022026
Most voice work is outside any union contract
The National Association of Voice Actors says 80% of voice work is freelance and not covered by union rules. It lists more than 100 actors who have found copies of their voice online, and has published a free AI clause for non-union contracts. The figure covers all voice work, not games alone, and comes from a group that campaigns on the issue.
032026
Saying so late is now a story in itself
Several of the loudest cases were about not saying so, rather than about using AI: 11 bit, Saber, and the studio behind Clair Obscur all disclosed after someone else pointed it out. The games lawyer Haley MacLean's advice to studios, quoted by GamesRadar+, is not to touch generative AI at all, because it is not worth the legal liability.
042026
Platforms treat creators' work as training material by default
Twitch presented enrolling every streamer as adding a setting. Asked whether past streams had already been used for training, its product chief said he did not know. Streamers have no contract like the actors', so their remedy is a lawsuit.
Objections
Counterpoint2026
Consent and disclosure did not stop the backlash
Arc Raiders used AI voices built from actors who were paid a licensing fee, and said so on Steam from launch. Players objected anyway, and its studio later re-recorded many lines with people. 'A real professional actor is better than AI,' its chief executive said. The fight is not only about being told.
Counterpoint2026
The commentator with the AI voice was not complaining
The NHL 27 case does not fit a story of people left out. Buccigross consented, was paid, and said of the AI lines: 'If that means less work but the same check, I'll take it.' No source says whether the actors' contract covers sports commentators. Saber, likewise, disputes its former writer's account, and she left the company a year before the actors' agreement existed.
Counterpoint2026
Nobody counts who is covered
No one publishes how many people who work on games are covered by the agreement, how many disputes there are each year, or how many games disclosed AI late. Outside the US the gap is wider. Equity, the British performers' union, has no collective agreement for games, only a recommended rate card, and says many game performers are not given a contract at all.
What to watch
2026
Whether Congress votes on a federal right over AI copies
The NO FAKES Act, a bill giving everyone a federal right over AI copies of their voice and likeness, passed a Senate committee unanimously in June 2026 and awaits a vote. It would reach streamers and non-union performers, whom the actors' contract cannot.
2027
The streamers' lawsuit against Twitch
During 2027, the first rulings in the class action over Twitch's default AI training setting. It is the first test of whether a platform can enroll creators' work unless they object. No hearing date has been published.
Further reading
- ReportingSAG-AFTRA Overwhelmingly Approves Video Game Agreement, Marking Official End To Nearly Yearlong Strikedeadline.com
- ReportingSaber's AI Rideshare Stimulator controversy almost closes on high notepcgamer.com
- ReportingReport: EA's NHL 27 is using genAI to create voiceover, claims a sports commentatorgamedeveloper.com
Where to follow it SAG-AFTRA's interactive media page, Deadline/Variety labor desks, Game Developer labor coverage
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