Replica Studios Inks a Deal with Actor's Union
Replica Studios, an artificial intelligence voice technology company, earlier this month struck a deal with The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), paving the way for professional voiceover artists to explore new employment opportunities.
The agreement between Replica and the performers' union will enable Replica to engage SAG-AFTRA members under a fair, ethical agreement to create and license digital replicas of their voices for video games and other interactive media projects.
In addition to establishing minimum terms and conditions, the agreement ensures performer consent and negotiation for use of their digital voice doubles and requires that performers have can opt out of its continued use in new works.
"Artificial intelligence has dominated the headlines, and for most performers, the best protection against the unauthorized digital simulation of their voice, likeness, and/or performance is a SAG-AFTRA contract. We are so happy to partner with Replica Studios, because this is a great example of AI being done right," said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher in a statement.
"Recent developments in AI technology have underscored the importance of protecting the rights of voice talent, particularly as game studios explore more efficient ways to create their games," said SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, in a statement. "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 SAG-AFTRA's world-renowned talent in an ethical manner that ensures consent and fair compensation for their contributions. This agreement also paves the way for other companies to follow their lead."
"Replica is proud to partner with SAG-AFTRA to introduce an ethical approach to the emerging use of generative AI. We are excited by the new opportunities this opens up for world-leading AAA studios who can now access the benefits of Replica's AI voice technology while knowing that talent is recognized and compensated fairly for the use of their likeness," said Shreyas Nivas, CEO of Replica Studios, in a statement. "Our voice actor agreements ensure that game developers using our platform are only accessing licensed talent who have given permission for their voice to be used as a training data set, as opposed to the wild west of AI platforms using unethical data-scraping methods to replicate and synthesize voices without permission."