A traditional image-and-likeness release usually permits a production to use identity attributes captured in a performance, such as a name, image, likeness, or voice. An AI performer clause addresses an additional decision: whether the production may create, alter, store, and use a generated digital replica, including as a substitute for services the performer would otherwise provide.
Those permissions are not automatically interchangeable. The contract’s wording, the production’s jurisdiction, any applicable collective bargaining agreement, and whether the performer is living or deceased determine what is actually allowed.
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What a traditional release normally covers
A conventional release is built around identifiable material from a particular production. It may authorize filming, recording, editing, distributing, advertising, or otherwise exploiting the performer’s captured work and identity attributes. Depending on the wording, those attributes can include a name, photograph, likeness, voice, performance, or biographical identification.
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The key legal event is usually the capture or use of a real performance. A game studio might record an actor’s voice lines, photograph the actor for a character model, or capture facial and body movement for performance animation. The release then defines how that recorded material can be used.
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Traditional forms vary widely. Some identify a title, character, media type, territory, term, and promotional uses. Others use broad language covering future media, adaptations, advertising, or related projects. A broad grant may be enforceable in some circumstances, but breadth alone does not prove that it authorizes every form of synthetic reproduction or satisfies a union or statute’s separate consent requirements.
What an AI performer clause adds
An AI-specific clause deals with acts that may occur after the original recording:
- Replica creation: building a digital model of a face, body, voice, or other performance characteristic from scans, recordings, or reference material.
- Replica use: generating new speech, images, movement, or other output that appears to come from the performer, rather than replaying the original take.
- Alteration: materially changing an existing performance or combining it with generated material.
- Substitution: allowing the replica to perform work that the performer otherwise would have been hired to perform.
- Retention and reuse: keeping scans, recordings, models, prompts, or generated assets for later episodes, expansions, sequels, marketing, localization, or unrelated projects.
These are separate questions from whether the studio may edit and distribute the original recording. A clause can permit use of recorded footage while saying nothing clear about creating a model that generates new content. Conversely, an AI rider may authorize a narrowly defined replica use without transferring every right in the performer’s underlying performance.
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| Issue | Traditional image-and-likeness release | AI performer clause or rider |
|---|---|---|
| What is authorized | Capture, edit, reproduce, and distribute an identified performance or identity attributes. | Create, alter, or use a generated replica and specify the outputs it may produce. |
| Specificity | May identify a project and media, or may use broad future-use wording. | Should describe the project, character or role, media, context, duration, territory, and intended synthetic use with enough detail to understand the decision. |
| Consent mechanics | Often signed with the production agreement or release. | May require clear and conspicuous consent to creation or use, plus information about the particular alteration or use under an applicable union agreement or law. |
| Substitution | Usually concerns exploitation of completed work, not replacing future services. | Should state whether the replica can stand in for work the performer would otherwise perform and when additional consent is required. |
| Compensation | Often an initial fee, with any reuse or residual terms supplied by the contract or collective agreement. | Must address the initial fee and any reuse, residual, session, or other payment triggers; there is no universal per-use formula. |
| Source data and models | May address recordings and physical or digital deliverables. | Should identify who keeps scans, voice files, training material, models, prompts, and generated assets; who can access them; and whether they can support other outputs. |
| Coverage | Controlled by the contract and applicable law. | Also depends on the production type, union coverage, jurisdiction, and whether the performer is living or deceased. |
Why a standard release may not answer the AI question
“Likeness” can describe more than one activity
In ordinary drafting, likeness may cover a recognizable appearance in a photograph, recording, or character portrayal. A synthetic model that produces new dialogue or facial motion raises a different factual question: is the production replaying an authorized recording, or generating a new performance that imitates the person? The answer can depend on definitions and the surrounding terms, so readers should not assume that one broad word settles the issue.
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Future uses are harder to evaluate
A performer can evaluate a release more meaningfully when it says that a scan will be used for a named game, a specified character, a defined platform, and a stated term. “Any media now known or later developed” gives less information about whether a voice model might later be used for downloadable content, advertising, localization, or another title. Specificity is especially important when a replica can create outputs that did not exist when the contract was signed.
Substitution changes the economic bargain
Using a digital double to complete a preplanned shot is different from using it to avoid hiring the performer for additional scenes, patches, expansions, or sequels. A contract should state whether substitution is permitted, what work is covered, and whether a new approval or payment is triggered. A permission to use old footage does not, by itself, establish a right to replace future personal services.
Consent, payment, and reuse are separate
Signing consent does not automatically establish a payment schedule, and paying an initial fee does not automatically authorize every later use. Review these questions independently: what use was approved, what amount was paid, what events create reuse or residual payments, and what requires a new consent. The governing union agreement or law may supply minimum terms, but no single payment rule applies to every performer or production.
How consent should be described
For any AI permission, look for language that tells the performer what will happen in understandable terms:
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- The source material being collected, such as a facial scan, voice recording, motion-capture data, or reference photographs.
- The output the model may create, such as replacement dialogue, facial animation, body movement, or promotional imagery.
- The named game, episode, expansion, campaign, or other project in which the output may appear.
- The character, scene type, rating or context, platform, territory, and duration.
- Whether the model may be used for localization, marketing, user-generated features, downloadable content, sequels, or unrelated productions.
- How approval is recorded and whether a materially different use requires renewed consent.
Under the 2023 SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical framework, the Congressional Research Service describes consent for creation or use of a digital replica as needing to be clear and conspicuous, with a reasonably specific description of the intended use or alteration. SAG-AFTRA’s performer-facing materials say performers have the right to consent to whether a replica is used or altered and to receive information about the specific use or alteration before consenting. The union also says informed consent cannot be buried in standard contract terms. Those protections are tied to the agreement’s coverage; they are not a universal rule for every game or every performer.
California developments to keep separate
California provides two useful, but distinct, examples. On September 17, 2024, the Governor announced the signing of AB 2602 and AB 1836. The announcement is a high-level guide; the enacted code controls definitions, exceptions, effective dates, and application.
AB 2602: replica provisions that substitute for services
The announcement describes AB 2602 as addressing covered contract provisions that allow a digital replica to substitute for a performer’s personal or professional services. It describes requirements for reasonably specific intended-use terms and representation by legal counsel or a labor union for those provisions. This is narrower than a claim that every AI use in every California production is governed identically. Determine whether the contract, performer, and production fall within the statute’s definitions and exceptions.
AB 1836: deceased performers
The announcement describes AB 1836 as addressing certain commercial uses of a deceased performer’s digital replica without estate consent. That postmortem issue is not the same as obtaining permission from a living performer for a new game performance. Estate rights, contract rights, and statutory exceptions must be checked separately before a studio uses a replica after death.
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What SAG-AFTRA coverage means for a game project
The 2023 SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical framework is a negotiated agreement with defined coverage. It should not be presented as a universal rule for nonunion performers, every interactive production, or every country. A game team must first establish whether the performer and the project are covered by that agreement or another applicable union arrangement.
SAG-AFTRA’s AI materials explain that the union’s digital-replica protections address voice as well as likeness. That union explanation should not be expanded into a claim that a particular state statute uses the same definitions or protects every possible data use. If a project is covered, obtain the agreement’s current requirements and follow its consent, notice, payment, and reuse procedures rather than relying on a generic release.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Video-game examples: where the distinction matters
Facial scanning for one character
A studio scans an actor and builds a face model for a named character in one game. The contract should say whether the scan is used only to render that character, whether it can be altered to create new expressions, how long the studio may retain the model, and whether the model can appear in expansions or a sequel. Authorization to show the actor’s photographed face in a trailer does not answer each of those model-use questions.
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A performer records a library of lines and the studio wants a system to generate additional dialogue. The agreement should identify the voice model, the game features that can call it, the approved character and context, quality or content limits, and the compensation and approval process for generated lines. It should also state whether the model may be used for localization or marketing. Replaying the recorded library and synthesizing new speech are different uses.
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Performance alteration
A captured performance is edited so that the character speaks words the actor never recorded or moves in a way the actor never performed. The contract should distinguish ordinary editorial assembly from material AI alteration and explain when the performer receives notice or can withhold consent. A union-covered project may have specific requirements for describing the alteration.
Expansion, sequel, or live-service content
A one-time permission may not clearly answer whether a replica can supply future seasonal content, downloadable missions, or a sequel. Treat each later use as a scope question: is it within the named project and term, does it replace a new service, and does the agreement require new consent or payment?
Use after a performer’s death
If a studio plans posthumous commercial use, identify the estate or other rights holder and analyze the governing law before production. The California AB 1836 issue is distinct from the consent a living performer gives during initial contracting.
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A contract-review checklist
Use this as issue-spotting, not individualized legal advice. A performer, studio, or representative should have qualified counsel or the applicable union review the actual language.
- Classify the activity. Mark each permission as capture, ordinary editing, material alteration, replica creation, replica use, or substitution for services.
- Define the intended use. Record the project, character, media, scene or context, territory, duration, platforms, and whether the use includes advertising, localization, downloadable content, expansions, or sequels.
- Check consent mechanics. Identify when consent is requested, how it is recorded, what information must be supplied before signing, and whether a materially different use requires renewed consent.
- Address substitution. State whether the replica may perform work the performer otherwise would have done, what limits apply, and what event triggers a new approval or engagement.
- Map compensation. List the initial fee and every possible reuse, residual, session, buyout, or other payment term. Do not assume a universal per-generation or per-use amount.
- Control source materials. Specify retention, deletion, security, access, model ownership, permitted vendors, and whether scans or recordings may train or generate other outputs. The reviewed legal and union materials do not establish one universal rule for these data questions.
- Identify governing authority. Note the contract’s governing law, the production’s location, the applicable union agreement, and any conflicts between state law and negotiated terms.
- Check postmortem rights. If the performer is deceased or could become so during a long project, identify estate-consent requirements and any statutory exceptions before authorizing commercial use.
Common drafting and production mistakes
- Relying on a single word. Treating “likeness,” “voice,” or “all media” as a complete AI authorization without describing the generated activity.
- Hiding consent in boilerplate. Presenting a material replica permission inside unrelated standard terms when the applicable agreement requires clear and conspicuous consent.
- Leaving the project undefined. Saying “future projects” without identifying whether that includes a sequel, expansion, advertising campaign, or a different character.
- Ignoring replacement. Authorizing a model without stating whether it can replace a new recording session or other personal service.
- Confusing payment with permission. Paying for the original session and assuming that payment resolves later generated uses.
- Forgetting the model itself. Tracking the final game asset but not the scans, voice files, intermediate models, vendor copies, or generated source files.
- Assuming one rule travels everywhere. Applying a California provision or a SAG-AFTRA term to a different jurisdiction, production category, or nonunion engagement without checking coverage.
Questions to ask before signing or deploying a replica
- What exact new output can the system generate, and what output is prohibited?
- Can the model be used outside the named title or character?
- Who can operate it, and can a vendor or another studio access the source data?
- What notice will the performer receive before an alteration or new use?
- When does a sequel, expansion, localization, or advertisement require a new approval?
- What happens to the model and source scans when the term ends or the project is cancelled?
- Which union agreement and law govern this performer and this production?
The answers should appear in the operative agreement or an incorporated rider, not only in a pitch deck, email, or production policy that the performer never accepted.
Bottom line
A traditional release governs use of a captured identity or performance; an AI performer clause governs the additional act of creating and deploying a synthetic version, including possible alteration, substitution, retention, and reuse. Read the permissions separately, demand a reasonably specific description of intended use where applicable, and verify consent, payment, data handling, union coverage, jurisdiction, and estate rights against the actual contract and current law. Neither a broad release nor a general statement about AI can substitute for that analysis.
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