Over 30 Apex Legends voice actors refuse to sign an agreement that would see them 'give up our expertise to train the generative AI that will replace us tomorrow'

(Image credit: EA)

The turmoil that AI (specifically, generative AI) has caused in the voice acting industry continues to rage—while an ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike proceeds apace in the US, it seems like gaming companies are continuing to fumble the bag in other territories. Like EA, who has very likely asked the French cast of Apex Legends to train AI that would, invariably, replace them.

That's as per voice actor Pascale Chemin (Wraith) who, in a post to Instagram (translated here by ResetEra user Rouk') has been given an offer she, and 31 of her colleagues, can absolutely refuse.

It should be noted that Chemin has not confirmed that this agreement came from EA, or that it's for Apex Legends, but it's the game her tagged colleagues all share in common. The 6-year-long role she later cites also aligns with the release date of Apex Legends, which came out in 2019—and launched with the character she voice acts.

"The studio sent me (and the 31 other VA in the casting) a [email] containing an annex of confidentiality and handover directly from the publisher. I needed to accept these terms before being able to go to work. I thought so when I read through them and a legal expert specialised in audiovisual confirmed it: These terms weren't acceptable.

"I was now forced to give up the role I had been working on for almost six years. In no way could I force the rest of the casting members to do the same, but one thing was certain: If we all refused, it could maybe have an impact. Otherwise, it would have been in vain."

However, it seems like collective action won out, as Chemin claims: "Without any hesitation, the 31 other VAs all refused to sign this annex. We wrote a collective letter of refusal that we sent to the publisher and are waiting for an answer. If we aren't united now so that a clause that protects our voices can be officially added in our contracts—and not just for us here, but for every video game dubbing studio—we'll never get one, and we'll be heading for a disaster."

The implication, it seems, is that EA was asking the game's French cast to allow their voices to be used to train generative AI—the kind that could be used to replace them. "We aren't simply asked to work. We are asked to give up our expertise to train the generative AI that will replace us tomorrow. We are asked to agree to what we specifically fight against. We are asked to shoot ourselves in the foot. We are asked to support AI."

Chemin later wrote on X (via machine translation): "Video game publishers want to force their way through. But to accept would be to give up, in the short term, our profession, it would be to accept being replaced by a machine."

I've contacted EA for comment—but given the public support by Chemin's contemporaries, and EA's literal stated aims to use AI "as quickly as possible", I'm personally willing to take this at face value. In which case, I am both very tired and not particularly surprised. Last October, EA CEO Andrew Wilson stated, rather ominously, that "large systematic change is required" after the game didn't hit its microtransaction targets.

While I'm sure EA—and many other publishers who care primarily about the line going up—would stand to gain via short-term savings, by no longer needing to pay its voice actors, this whole thing is just… tremendously short-sighted. Any time a company needs to save money in our modern era of game development, it seems institutional knowledge and long-held voice talent is the first to go.

Even putting aside the ethical concerns (which you shouldn't, obviously) AI voicework is generally unappealing to listen to even when it's higher-fidelity than the alternative. The genuine heart and soul put into performances like Neil Newbon's Astarion can't be replaced by a prompt. Is shaving off margins for your next quarter really worth permanently making your game sound like a cheap plastic imitation of itself? In the world of shareholders, maybe, but for everyone else—the AI enshittification continues.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.