Earlier this week, footage of an AI-powered character prototype developed by Sony and modeled after Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy leaked online. The game’s community was immediately critical of the whole effort, and now Ashly Burch, the human actor behind Aloy’s original performance, has published her own response.
“I saw the tech demo earlier this week,” Burch says in an Instagram video. “Guerrilla reached out to me to let me know that the demo didn’t reflect anything that was actively in development. They didn’t use any of my performance for the demo, so none of my facial or voice data.”
But still, “I feel worried,” Burch says. “Not worried about Guerrilla specifically, or Horizon, or my performance, or my career specifically, even. I feel worried about this art form. Game performance as an art form.”
Burch is part of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes against the video game industry, and a key component of those strikes is the demand for better protections against the unauthorized use of actors’ performances through generative AI. “What we’re fighting for is that you have to get our consent before you make an AI version of us in any form,” Burch explains. “You have to compensate us fairly, and you have to tell us how you’re using this AI double.”
The actor previously participated in the SAG-AFTRA video game strike of 2016-2017, which saw the union demanding residual payments and more transparency around the roles actors were being cast for. Notably, the strike left Burch unable to reprise her role as Chloe in Life Is Strange: Before the Storm until the game’s DLC bonus episode.
The state of the negotiations in the current strike has had the union denouncing game industry proposals that are “still filled with alarming loopholes that will leave our members vulnerable to AI abuse.” People like Resident Evil and Witcher 3 mocap director Steve Kniebihly remain confident that AI won’t be replacing real actors “anytime soon,” but those concerns are a big part of why the strike is ongoing.
“I feel worried not because the technology exists, [and] not even because game companies want to use it, because of course they do – they always want to use technological advancements,” Burch says. “I just imagine a video like this coming out that does have someone’s performance attached to it – that does have someone’s voice or face or movement – and the possibility that if we lose this fight, that person would have no recourse. They wouldn’t have any protections, any way to fight back. That possibility, it makes me so sad.”
As Sony trots out an AI-powered Aloy, Horizon Zero Dawn fans revel in the irony: “The entire game is a warning against this kind of nonsense.”
