Hey Fam,
Checking in again on A.I.
Yup it’s still here, getting more sophisticated, and no, it doesn’t mean your career has ended before it’s begun.
Let’s all take a breath, refocus and pay attention to some advances in our collective cause.
Since my literal hair-on fire blog back in 2023 regarding the insidious, and sometimes diabolical advance of A.I. into our industry, a lot of good stuff has happened!
Protections…
Our union SAG/AFTRA at the time of this writing is about to ratify a new video game contract with significant protections in place for increased compensation and use of A.I. This has already taken place in our animation and commercials contracts.
It’s not perfect, but at least now we have a way to protect ourselves, make more money, and regulate any future use of our voices.
And this is happening on a Federal and Global level. So stay tuned.
Other good news!
Fortunately, A.I. still lacks nuance – and so far, the ability to ad lib (another excellent reason to get some improv training!).
While A.I. can replicate many many things, the qualities that make us human, that make us feel, and make everyone else feel, tho they can be manipulated through A.I., hopefully will never be completely replaceable. And helping people feel something… anything… is the greatest gift we have as living, breathing artists.
This is confirmed over and over for me every month, at every convention appearance worldwide in one on one conversations with YOU.
My dear friend Dee Bradley Baker sez:
“…humans create with a recognizable specificity and awareness of context that flows from human life and experience. Machines replicate and recombine the generic, the non sequitur, the average- all of which are anathema to nailing a good story. Machines do cosplay story creation.”
Ok, truth… I had to look up some of the words he used. A very human thing to do, to fully grasp the meaning of his words. But this one hit me right in the feels.
True meaning and the ability to feel is something a machine replicated voice will never understand or be able to duplicate.
I know we’re all a little scared, but hopefully hyper vigilant now through what is just another (as Dee has also thoughtfully coined…) “technological disruption.” They’ve been happening for decades and somehow, we’ve all made our way through it.
We’ve been here before…
As many of my colleagues have said out there, we’ve faced massive challenges to our livelihood for generations now in our industry. In fact, when I signed with my agency, my agent told me:
“Congratulations, and welcome to the family. You’re getting in at the hardest time in history.”
Though that was hard to hear, it was important fuel that caused me to work 10 times harder.
At that time, the big commercial residuals had just gone away. All of my friends who bought houses and cars as soon as they got their first big commercial campaign benefited from windfall profits, but I missed that window by about one year. In fact, I’ve never had that at any point in my career.
My success has been a result of tenacity, volume, persistence, awareness and adaptability. I’ve never been able to depend on “a big break.”
Since then, even the good-to-decent residuals from network and cable have been largely replaced by crappy streaming crumbs. I’ve had to change the format that my demos were delivered on three times through the years as technology improved. I’ve had to upgrade my studio a half dozen times throughout my career. And I’ve had to find and develop new skill sets constantly.
Protecting yourself and your career
I’ve told you what you can do to protect yourself before, but here’s a quick refresher:
Number one: Never agree to have your voice cloned for a one time compensatory payment. NO MATTER HOW BIG IT IS! Predatory A.I. companies may offer you a huge lump sum to clone your voice. Just know that it may be the last time you’ll ever be able to use your own voice legally, and it could be an instant career ender.
You will never see another dime from them, you will never receive residuals, and if you’re not careful, they’ll try to get you to sign an exclusive contract saying that they own your voice forever, in perpetuity, throughout the universe – in any media!
Number two: NAVA, the National Association of Voice Actors has created a free, downloadable contract rider for A.I. protections that you should attach to every non-union contract you sign. If you haven’t been signing contracts for your work, start insisting on them today.
Never work another session until you get familiar with reading a contract and insist on one for every job. If they won’t accept the NAVA rider to be attached to your contract, it’s a big red flag, and I would highly recommend having an attorney look at your contract before you sign it.
Need another ray of hope?
My dear friends at Sassy Chap Games have just released the first video game that actually values the talent and abilities of real voice actors to the point that they included an independent royalties agreement addendum to our usual SAG/AFTRA contract that offers every actor on the project a share of the revenue the game makes.
If this works, it will pay us residuals for our game work for the first time in history.
So despite all of the yuck out there, there are still more ways to make a living as a voice actor than ever before, and armies of intelligent allies fighting to preserve that on our behalf with creative and lasting solutions.
You’ll need to do YOUR part too!
Like anything worth having, your success is gonna require vigilance, diligence, and dedication from you. And like anything else in this or any other creative industry, nobody’s going to hand you anything.
Even if you have the best representation in the world, it’s up to you to be your own best advocate.
Don’t be scared. Be proactive – and remember that your REAL intelligence matters.
I’ll see you in the booth.