Sag-Aftra Actors Union successfully completed negotiations after almost a year's striking, with a new contract – the interactive media agreement – which protects voice actors and performance species from a wide range of concerns. The contract includes major developers and publishers such as electronic art and activation, among others, and both sides have reached an agreement.
AI's rise has deep consequences for voice actors in games: studios can now generate realistic character voices without recording sessions, which threatens many artists' jobs as well as creative authenticity. Last year, SAG launched a strike focusing on large video game studios and demanded protection against uncontrolled AI use. Voice and motion-capture actors claimed that developers could train AI on their performances and use digital copies without consent or fair salary, and after almost 11 months a tentative business was reached in June 2025. This strike was not just whether wage-it was about preserving artistic integrity and establishing industrial spirits.
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Following the tentative agreement that Sag-Aftra reached in June, the contract has now been ratified. The agreement includes immediate and annual salary increases, new security measures (with qualified medical professionals in repetitions and performance), AI provisions that require informed consent, opening of use, compensation for digital copies and the right to pause AI usage during future strikes.
SAG-Aftra Actors Union ensures contracts that protect artists from AI
The new contract was successfully approved by the majority of the Union, with 95 percent voting for and 5 percent opposite. Sag-Aftra President Fran Drescher said that the new agreement makes important progress about the use of AI in video games and offered her respect for “the entire video game performance society” during the long process that took many months but was crucial to what the Union achieved.
The video gaming companies involved in the negotiations with voice actors expressed their satisfaction with the agreement. Companies spokesman, Audrey Cooling, said they want to build a partnership with the Union to continue creating “groundbreaking entertainment experiences” for players.
This is a very meaningful victory for voice actors, especially considering that Sag-Aftra rejected a new proposal mainly to use voice performances to train AI without permission or compensation for the actors involved a few months ago. With AI's rapid progress, it is uncertain how things will develop forward and whether the agreement will need to be revised sometime in the future, but it provides a good precedent for the video game performance society.
