Sony Shows New  High End ‘XR’ Headset; Twitch Cuts a Third of Staff; Valve-New Guidelines Allow More AI Content in Games; SAG-AFTRA Signs Deal With Studio Setting Terms for AI Voices in Video Games

In a surprise move on the very day that Apple announced the release date for its Vision Pro headset, Sony unveiled a high end XR headset at CES that rivals the Vision Pro in capabilities and design. According to zdnet.com, the Sony-Siemens headset will be released later in 2024, and have 4K OLED micro displays, and a couple of features Apple’s headset doesn’t have…a flip-up facial interface, allowing a user to quickly switch from using the headset to looking around their real surroundings, then jump back into the VR world. Apple has a high res passthrough that does this to an extent, but you are still looking at your surroundings via cams. In addition, the Sony headset has a pair of wearable controllers…one is a ring and the other is a pointer. These may make gesture reading by the system more precise than just hand motions, as Apple relies on. The Sony rig appears to be more ‘pro’ than Apple’s, in that it seems to be aimed squarely at professionals, developers, and other spending long hours with a headset. No pricing has been revealed yet. 

Twitch is laying off over 500 employees, around 35% of the total staff. Theverge.com reports that Twitch had already chopped 400 last spring, as part of cutbacks at parent Amazon. As with that reduction last spring, there are additional layoffs at Amazon. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy wrote in the announcement that Twitch paid out over $1 billion to streamers last year, remarking that “while the Twitch business remains strong, for some time now the organization has been sized based upon where we optimistically expect our business to be in 3 or more years, not where we’re at today.”

Valve has unveiled new rules that will allow the company to add more games with AI content to its Steam platform. Engadget.com says it’s updating its content survey form for developers so that they can give the company a description of how they use artificial intelligence in their games. If they used AI tools to generate art, code, sound or any other kind of content for their title, developers must ensure that they do not include anything illegal or anything that infringes on someone else’s copyright. Valve says it will evaluate each game and check if the developer has submitted truthful information. Valve said it will also be transparent with gamers when it comes with what kind of AI content a developer’s title has by including their disclosure on their Steam store page.

SAG-AFTRA has inked a deal with Replica Studios that sets terms for the use of AI in video games. According to Variety, the terms include informed consent for the use of AI to create digital voice replicas, as well as requirements for the safe storage of digital assets. This was a major issue in the SAG-AFTRA strike that lasted several months. The union’s executive director, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, said “These are the kind of terms that producers can agree to without disrupting their ability to make content,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “This is an evolutionary step forward. AI technology is not something we can block. It’s not something we can stop. That’s not a tactic or a strategy that’s ever worked for labor in the past.” Really, what members want…and get in this contract is the right to refuse use of a clone of their voice in projects they feel would taint them, informed consent, and to be paid a licensing fee for use of the clone of their voice. The deal does not block studios from training AI to create ‘synthetic’ actors that bear no resemblance to real performers.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.