SAG-AFTRA and game companies have resumed negotiations.
SAG-AFTRA is on strike against game companies over AI use of talent.
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SAG-AFTRA union announces deal for AI protections on 80 video games

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

Eighty games have signed SAG-AFTRA’s tiered-budget or interim agreements, a sign that the entertainment union said proves that its provisions — which include common sense AI protections — are fair and achievable.

The union has been on strike against the major game developers since July, and these interim and tiered agreements provide employment opportunities to members during the work stoppage. This deal will allow members to work, but it does not mean the strike is completely over. The actual AI protections are described here in a sample agreement and a comparison chart is here.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.