Actor of Horizon's Aloy character used in divisive Sony AI tech demo 'scared'

Ashly Burch, the actor of Aloy in Playstation's Horizon series, has addressed Sony showing off an AI version of the character she plays internally to employees and says she is "scared" and "worried" about the potential impact the increasing use of artificial intelligence could have on game actors.

The Verge first reported an anonymous tipster shared an internal video with the publication showing an AI-powered version of Aloy which could hold a conversation through voice prompts in a similar way to chatbots like ChatGPT.

This video was uploaded to YouTube but was taken down because of a copyright claim from Muso, a copyright enforcement company which lists Sony as a client, but it's still available on other platforms.

Although Burch plays Aloy in the games, this version of the character saw her respond with an AI-powered synthesised voice and facial movements both in Horizon Forbidden West itself and in a tech demo setting.

In the video, Sharwin Raghoebardajal, a software engineering director at Sony who works on video game technology, said: "The demo which we ended up making is really just a quick, fun prototyping project to show what we can achieve. This is just a glimpse of what is possible."

And Burch shared a post on Instagram addressing the use of the character, what she had been told about it by Guerrilla Games (the studio that develops games in the Horizon series) and that actors in the gaming industry such as herself need better protection from the increasing use of AI.

She said: "Guerrilla reached out to me to let me know that the demo did not 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.

"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 on strike with video games companies because of AI, because this technology exists, because we know game companies want to use it.

"We're asking for protections. What we're fighting for is that you have to get our consent before you make an AI version of us in any form, you have to compensate us fairly and you have to tell us how you're using this AI double.

"The possibility that we lose this fight and someone have no recourse, they wouldn't have any protections or way to fight back, makes me sad, it hurts my heart, it scares me."

SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents 160,000 workers, recently shared a statement saying it is "frustratingly far apart" from reaching a deal with certain companies.

AI has been used in gaming for a long time but its recent huge advances has led to its use ballooning to the extent where it's causing concern from all corners of the industry.

Some actors feel like they're being replaced with AI models, developers are increasingly at risk of AI tools being used to do their jobs which could lead to redundancies and gamers can notice where generative AI has been used because of its low quality, which is referred to as 'AI slop'.

It's cheaper for gaming companies to use AI to generate and create content.

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