SAN DIEGO, July 27 (Reuters) - While pop culture fans

from around the world eagerly returned for the first San Diego

Comic-Con since last year's dual writers and actors strikes,

video game actors arrived to air their grievances about

artificial intelligence.

"After 18 months and still getting proposals back as

recently as this past week that do not cover all our members and

protect all their performances from the unethical use of

artificial intelligence," the chief contracts officer of

SAG-AFTRA, Ray Rodriguez, told Reuters at San Diego Comic-Con.

"You know, at a certain point, you can't just keep doing

what hasn't been working up until now. And we've reached that

point where it was time to take this action," he said.

Videogame voice actors and motion-capture performers called

a strike starting on Friday over failed contract negotiations

focused around AI-related protections for workers, bringing

about another work stoppage in Hollywood.

The SAG-AFTRA strike of the Interactive Media Agreement

follows months of negotiations with major videogame companies,

including Activision Productions, Electronic Arts ( EA ), Epic Games,

Take-Two Interactive, Disney ( DIS ), Character Voices

and Warner Bros Discovery's ( WBD ) and WB Games.

Fans at the convention, meanwhile, celebrated a restored

Comic-Con brimming with A-list stars and writers once again.

"I'm really happy because now Hall H is back, exhibitions

are back, so it's going to be great this year and I hope I'm

going to see somebody - I don't know - famous or something,"

said Paola Guerrero from Mexico.

SAG-AFTRA and the National Association of Voice Actors

hosted panels at the convention to discuss the urgency of the

issues they face with AI.

"When you bring a performer in to render a performance, you

take their data, you take their likeness, you take their voice

and you use a computer to then be able to digitally replicate

that to generate new performance that that performer would have

otherwise been brought in to do," Rodriguez said.

"You are taking their career away. You are alienating from

them something that is essential to their personhood and

something that is irreplaceable from a career perspective," he

added.

Despite the dispute, major video game companies proceeded

with their convention panels. Notably, EA Games announced the

voice cast for the next installment of the popular "Dragon Age"

videogame franchise "Dragon Age: The Voices of the Vanguard."

The panel, held the day before the strike began, included

voice actors Ali Hillis and Ike Amadi, both known for "Mass

Effect 3," Nick Boraine, known for "Call of Duty: Modern

Warfare," and others.