Intel Foundry has announced a "strategic" collaboration with the famous Taiwanese semiconductor firm UMC as they vow to move together in semiconductor development.
10.01.2024 - 18:05 / pcgamer.com / Ai
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has announced a «groundbreaking AI voice agreement» as per the union's website—and despite its claim that the agreement was «approved by affected members of the union’s voiceover performer community», a lot of industry vets feel like their voices weren't heard.
This agreement with Replica Studios seeks to "[pave] the way for professional voice over artists to safely explore new employment opportunities for their digital voice replicas with industry-leading protections tailored to AI technology".
While the specifics have not yet been outlined beyond the press release, the announcement states the agreement will broadly allow SAG-AFTRA actors to licence their talent (as replicated by AI) for use in «video game development and other interactive media projects.»
The use of artificial intelligence has been a particularly tense subject for voice actors—including for SAG-AFTRA itself, which overwhelmingly approved a strike in September 2023, citing worries over «exploitative AI» as one of many reasons for its decision. That makes this turn of events even stranger.
Steve Blum—a prolific voice actor who you might recognise as Grunt from Mass Effect 2 and Oghren from Dragon Age: Origins (and more recently Mephisto from Diablo 4)—spoke out about the agreement on Twitter/X, saying that «nobody in our community approved this».
A deluge of other voice industry professionals have responded similarly. So many in fact, I need to resort to bullet points to keep things legible:
This is just what I gleaned from the immediate, public response—and it's still an abridgedlist. It's safe to say that the union's decision here has not gone over well with a sizable portion of the community it claims to represent. Sizeable does not mean 'all', though.
SAG-AFTRA is amajor union representing a broad swathe of talent across the industry. The primary issue with the statement is that there's a complete lack of information available—both on the agreement itself and the steps taken to get there. It's unclear whether this is a genuine heel-turn or simply an issue of poor communication.
One could make the argument that when it comes to AI-generated work, the metaphorical cat is already out of its bag—that SAG-AFTRA's protections are here to let voice actors continue to profit from their work. The union's national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland certainly seems to think so:
«With this agreement, we have achieved fully informed consent and fair compensation when it comes to the use of our members' voices and performances. We are proud to work with Replica in leading the way to make it easy for these companies to access
Intel Foundry has announced a "strategic" collaboration with the famous Taiwanese semiconductor firm UMC as they vow to move together in semiconductor development.
Union membership numbers in the UK have risen significantly, following a tumultuous period in the video game industry (which still continues today).
2024 might be the Academy Awards’ biggest year in ages. The Oscar nominations, set for announcement on Tuesday, Jan. 23, are primed to honor highly regarded films from around the world, performances that premiered in theaters and on streaming, and a few of the biggest movies of the year — including the Barbenheimer double feature of Oppenheimerand Barbie. It’s been a slow crawl back from the hazy pandemic era where movies that kinda sorta came out in time won Best Picture, but here we are, with a set of nomations that stands to be both predictable and electrifying.
If you’re a fan of WWE, then get ready for a new installment of the WWE 2K franchise. Today, we got the reveal of WWE 2K24 and some details about what to expect and who is featured on the covers for the editions being released. For starters, the focus of this installment is the history of WrestleMania. Past installments typically focus on a particular wrestler’s career and their highlights during a run in the WWE. However, it seems like we have a timespan of forty years to focus on as we take a look at some of the iconic moments of WrestleMania.
After leaving Rocksteady during the development of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, it looks like studio founders Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker have quietly launched a new company called Hundred Star Games.
Finnish games firm Remedy has come into conflict with Take-Two Interactive over its new logo design.
A new Xbox Wire post announced that the Final Fantasy 14 open beta for Xbox Series X|S is live, but Xbox quickly backtracked and provided some clarification. The Final Fantasy 14 open beta is not ready yet for Xbox, as the company reveals that an error was made while sharing the news.
American Truck Simulator's list of confirmed future stops is beginning to pile up; not only has developer SCS revealed trips to Nebraska and Arkansas are on the horizon, it's announced it'll be pulling into Missouri when those two expansions are done.
Qualcomm was reportedly able to leverage an exclusive agreement with Microsoft where only the San Diego company’s chipsets would be used with any OEM launching a Windows notebook. However, we could be heading into a new era as, according to ARM CEO, the agreement between the two companies will expire later this year, giving other chipset makers an opportunity to penetrate this market and offer more options to customers.
Would you like a game controller that «can suggest button remaps and sensitivity adjustments» based on how you use it? What about a gaming mouse that «adjusts DPI settings in real-time, ensuring that your cursor movements are always accurate and fluid?» Or a keyboard that will «suggest key remaps and macros tailored to your gaming habits?» Those are all the promises of AI Shark, a new peripheral maker from the former US CEO of the company that launched the GameShark in 1996.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
By Ash Parrish, a reporter who has covered the business, culture, and communities of video games for seven years. Previously, she worked at Kotaku.