System A has been double cast in a theatre performance. They've decided to have two headmates front for the acting, with each headmate taking on one of their roles!
People do not talk enough about how amazing Lae'zels voice acting is. Devora Wilde put her whole ass pussy into some of those lines but nobody pays attention and calls laezel one note and angry. But have you listened? Have you heard her voice shake as she cries "what good - this heart of stone - for it to be shattered?" Have you heard the conviction where she declares that Vlaketh has sinned against her? Have you listened to the fear in her voice, the slight tremble when she is talking of becoming a mindflayer and the way that she has utter awe in her tones when she experiences something that is truly spiritual to her? Like. It's such a subtle and great performance.
We could lose acting, filmmaking, television as we know it.
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UPDATE: THEY MIGHT!
Update: They've voted to authorize a strike!
(I debated adding this to the original post or not, since it's mostly being reblogged by people reblogging from someone that isn't me. But @animeengineer was kind enough to grab the link below, so I'm putting it in the original post)
I saw a tweet somewhere that said (and I'm so sorry I don't have the link to it or remember who wrote it):
I think 47+% of SAG members voted, and nearly 98% of the ones who voted, voted yes.
In comparison, I think the last time they voted in favor of a contract, around 25% of SAG members responded, and of those that did, about 75% voted yes.
Another Update: They're doing it! SAG-AFTRA is joining the WGA on the picket lines, and not just in solidarity!
This isn't the Official from SAG-AFTRA, but they are voting this morning and if they don't strike, that goes against what all the members and the board and such have authorized.
[Image ID: A tweet from Discussing Film (@discussingfilm) from July 13th, 2023 that reads:
SAG-AFTRA is officially going on strike.
This is the first time both the actors & writers are on strike in over 60 years. /End ID]
SAG-AFTRA, the union representing thousands of performers, has struck a deal with an AI voice acting platform aimed at making it easier for actors to license their voice for use in video games. ...
the agreements cover the creation of so-called “digital voice replicas” and how they can be used by game studios and other companies. The deal has provisions for minimum rates, safe storage and transparency requirements, as well as “limitations on the amount of time that a performance replica can be employed without further payment and consent.”
Notably, the agreement does not cover whether actors’ replicas can be used to train large language models (LLMs), though Replica Studios CEO Shreyas Nivas said the company was interested in pursuing such an arrangement. “We have been talking to so many of the large AAA studios about this use case,” Nivas said. He added that LLMs are “out-of-scope of this agreement” but “they will hopefully [be] things that we will continue to work on and partner on.”
...Even so, some well-known voice actors were immediately skeptical of the news, as the BBC reports. In a press release, SAG-AFTRA said the agreement had been approved by "affected members of the union’s voiceover performer community." But on X, voice actors said they had not been given advance notice. "How has this agreement passed without notice or vote," wrote Veronica Taylor, who voiced Ash in Pokémon. "Encouraging/allowing AI replacement is a slippery slope downward." Roger Clark, who voiced Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, also suggested he was not notified about the deal. "If I can pay for permission to have an AI rendering of an ‘A-list’ voice actor’s performance for a fraction of their rate I have next to no incentive to employ 90% of the lesser known ‘working’ actors that make up the majority of the industry," Clark wrote.
SAG-AFTRA’s deal with Replica only covers a sliver of the game industry. Separately, the union is also negotiating with several of the major game studios after authorizing a strike last fall. “I certainly hope that the video game companies will take this as an inspiration to help us move forward in that negotiation,” Crabtree said.
And here are some various reactions I've found about things people in/adjacent to this can do
And in OTHER AI games news, Valve is updating it's TOS to allow AI generated content on steam so long as devs promise they have the rights to use it, which you can read more about on Aftermath in this article by Luke Plunkett
i’m so sick of writers who proudly proclaim that they don’t read and directors and actors and other filmmakers who smugly say that they rarely watch movies or any artist who acts like an audience is stupid for connecting with their work like what the fuck is wrong with you that you hold such contempt such derision for the art that you have chosen to make the art that so many people dream of the opportunity to make the art that brings meaning and connection to people’s lives it’s unbelievably disrespectful to both your audience and the art-form and if you can’t muster basic respect for either your art-form or your audience then kindly fuck off and do something else