French Apex Legends voice actors have resigned after Ubisoft doing a terrible move by trying to use them to train “AI“. This decision is massive, and it can cause some relevant losses to the greedy company who expected they would reap something out of it. Talents need to take care of themselves, and if resigning is the way to do so, no matter how hard it is, it needs to be done. Apex Legends is after all, another slop Live Service title that will be erased from the collective conscious once the fad moves on to a newer thing. Nobody remembers these Live Service slop titles, not even their biggest fans. We at Infinite Start will cover what the French cast had to say regarding this issue.
Apex Legends voice actors strike
The following statement has been giving by one of the actors in the 31 person cast:
“Even before being summoned to a video game recording session, the studio sent me (and the 31 other actors in the cast) by email a confidentiality and assignment annex from the publisher directly. In order to be summoned and therefore work, I must first accept these clauses. At first reading, they are not acceptable, which was confirmed to me by a lawyer specializing in audiovisual. I feel forced to “give up” the role to which I have lent my voice for almost 6 years. In no way can I “force” the rest of the cast to do the same, but one thing is certain: If we all refuse, it can have an impact. Otherwise, it is a waste of time.
THE 31 OTHER ACTORS, WITHOUT HESITATION, REFUSED TO SIGN THIS ANNEX. We have written a collective refusal that we have sent to the publisher and are waiting for a response. Because if we do not stand together now, so that a clause protecting our voices is officially put in our contracts, and this, for all the studios that record video games, we will never have it and we are heading for a wall.
Of course, refusing to work right now is absurd, there is little or no work for some (many) and we are increasingly struggling. So yes, a fee is welcome. But here, we are not simply being asked to work, we are being asked to give up our know-how to train the generative AI that will replace us tomorrow. We are being asked to accept what we are fighting against. We are being asked to shoot ourselves in the foot. We are being asked to endorse this.”
We are happy to see that these actors have decided to fight against this new AI slop trend. Many more artists need to keep doing disruptive movements like this, companies who do not appreciate art need to lose all of their artists. And if they want to shun them away and replace them with soulless voice synths, then they will see their sale numbers decline. What companies fear the most, is hitting them right in the wallet, and we can keep pushing more attacks against them. People should also stop playing Apex Legends in General.
