BURBANK, California, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Striking video

game voice actors and motion-capture performers held their first

picket on Thursday in front of Warner Bros. Games and said

artificial intelligence was a threat to their professions.

"The models that they're using have been trained on our

voices without our consent at all, with no compensation,"

"Persona 5 Tactica" voice actor and video game strike captain,

Leeanna Albanese, told Reuters on the picket line.

Video game voice actors and motion-capture performers called

a strike last week over failed labor contract negotiations

focused on AI-related protections for workers.

This marks the latest strike in Hollywood after union

writers and actors marched on the picket lines last year with AI

also being a major concern.

"I think when you remove the human element from any

interactive project, whether it be a video game or TV show, an

animated series, a movie, and you put AI in replacement for the

human element, we can tell! I'm a gamer, I'm a digester of this

content," British "Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare & Warzone" actor

Jeff Leach said.

The decision to strike follows months of negotiations with

major videogame companies including Activision Productions

, Electronic Arts ( EA ), Epic Games, Take-Two

Interactive, Disney Character Voices and Warner

Bros Discovery's ( WBD ) WB Games.

However, major video game publishers including Electronic

Arts ( EA ) and Take-Two will likely stave off a big hit from the

strike due to their in-house studios and the lengthy development

cycles for games, analysts have said.

The strike also brings with it a larger call to action

across Hollywood as people in the industry advocate for a law

that can protect them from AI risks as well.

"There's not a larger national law to protect us, so the NO

FAKES Act is basically legislation with the goal of protecting

our identities, protecting our personhood on a national scale as

opposed to on a state level," Albanese said.

The NO FAKES Act, a bipartisan bill in Congress which would

make it illegal to make an AI replica of someone's likeness and

voice without their permission, has gained support from the

SAG-AFTRA performers union, the Motion Picture Association, The

Recording Academy and Disney ( DIS ).

From Grammy-winning artist Taylor Swift to Vice President

Kamala Harris, who is running in the 2024 presidential election,

leaders in entertainment and beyond say deep fakes created from

AI are a pressing policy matter.

"Everybody in this country needs protection from the abusive

use of AI," Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive

director and chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA told Reuters at the

picket line.