Actors Warned AI Contracts Could Give Away Rights to Their Voices
Equity has warned actors about AI clauses in video game contracts that could allow their voices to be recreated and reused without further payment.
Actors are being warned about the potential consequences of signing away rights to their voices after performers’ union Equity raised concerns about artificial intelligence provisions in a video game casting.
The union issued its warning on Friday 23 October 2026, highlighting contractual terms that could allow recordings of performers to be used for AI training and potentially recreated in future productions.
Although the casting concerns a video game, the implications could extend into television, film, animation and other areas of entertainment where voice performances are increasingly valuable.
Why Equity is concerned about AI contracts
Equity’s warning centres on a casting that includes provisions relating to artificial intelligence and the assignment of performers’ rights.
An assignment of rights can give a company extensive control over how recorded material is used, depending on the precise wording of the agreement.
The union is concerned that performers could agree to terms allowing their voices to be used for AI training, potentially enabling companies to generate new dialogue without bringing the original actor back into the recording studio.
This raises questions about consent and payment, particularly if a synthetic voice is used in projects beyond the one for which the performer was originally hired.
Equity has not reviewed the complete contract for the casting and has not publicly identified the game or studio involved. Its concerns therefore relate to the provisions it has seen rather than any confirmed misuse of an actor’s voice.
What could this mean for television and film actors?
The potential consequences extend beyond the gaming industry because entertainment companies increasingly develop characters and stories across different formats.
A performer might record dialogue for a video game that later becomes the basis of an animated television series or film adaptation. If the original agreement gives the company broad rights over their recorded voice, those terms could affect whether the performer is asked to return or receives additional payment.
The same concerns apply to actors working in animation, audiobooks and other productions where dialogue is recorded separately from the finished project.
AI voice technology can now generate speech from existing recordings, making it increasingly important for performers to understand what they are agreeing to when signing contracts.
For independent filmmakers and smaller production companies, synthetic voices can provide useful tools for testing scripts or creating temporary dialogue. However, using a real performer’s voice without appropriate permission raises different legal and ethical questions.
Why performers need to examine the small print
Equity is encouraging actors and their representatives to examine AI-related contractual provisions carefully before accepting work.
The union’s concerns focus on whether performers understand how their voices may be used, whether they retain control over future applications and whether they receive appropriate compensation.
The warning also highlights the difference between agreeing to record dialogue for a particular production and allowing a company to create a reusable synthetic version of that performance.
As AI technology becomes more common across entertainment, those distinctions could become increasingly important for actors negotiating contracts.
For performers, the concern is not simply whether artificial intelligence will be used in a production, but whether an agreement signed for one job could affect their ability to earn money from their voice in the future.
