“Horizon” Actress Talks That Aloy AI Video

Ashly Burch, the actress who portrays Aloy in the acclaimed “Horizon: Zero Dawn” and “Horizon: Forbidden West” games, has responded to a video that made the rounds this past week involving an AI version of her character.

The controversial video leaked last week via The Vergewhich demonstrated an AI-powered version of Aloy as she takes part in a conversation with Sony Interactive’s software engineering director Sharwin Raghoebardajal.

The character and her responses were generated with a combination of OpenAI’s Whisper and Sony’s own Mockingbird, and the video was subsequently taken down under a copyright claim. Unfortunately it wasn’t before a whole bunch of reactions emerged labelling the work as ‘ghastly’ and ‘creepy’.

Now, Burch has responded on her social media accounts saying she is worried about the future of video game performance as an art form – especially with the current SAG-AFTRA strike against this style of AI performance in gaming:

“I saw the tech demo earlier this week. [Developer] Guerrilla reached out 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, none of my facial or voice data. Guerrilla owns Aloy as a character.

All that said. I feel worried, and 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.

We are currently on strike. SAG-AFTRA is currently on strike against video games because of AI, because this technology exists, and because we know that game companies want to use it. We are asking for protections.”

Gaming actors are fighting for consent being required to use their digital doubles, fair compensation, and to be informed how the double will be used:

“I feel worried not because the technology exists, not even because game companies want to use it, because of course they want to use technological advancements, 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 more recourse.”

SAG-AFTRA currently offers interim agreements between actors and employers, which are vetted by the union and, if approved, allow them to perform the role while strike action is ongoing.

Source: Instagram

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