According to Jennifer Hale, no one is forcing game developers to use artificial intelligence (AI).

In an interview featured in the 2026 GDC Trends Report, the prolific voice actress once again brought up the topic of generative AI and its impact on actors. She placed particular emphasis on the fact that, even as this controversial technology takes the gaming industry by storm, the future remains in human hands. She argued that creative professions, such as acting, are like canaries in a coal mine in that they signal how generative AI will affect the broader workforce. This means that game developers and artists have the opportunity to determine how AI will change work in the future—for better or worse.

“AI is not going anywhere. It’s part of our reality, and I believe one must accept it. But we are also responsible for it. AI is not yet an independent intelligence. It’s a tool. The tool does what the person holding it tells it to do. As actors, we’re asking for consent. I don’t want my work used in certain situations. I don’t want an AI to perform something I could have done because I can bring to it a human soul that is however many days or years more informed, intelligent, and experienced than it was the last time I worked on that project. Control, consent, and then compensation. You can’t take away someone’s ability to make a living and not pay them. It is wrong. It is wrong. Nobody is making you do it. You do it or you don’t,” said Hale.

She spoke openly about the threat that generative AI poses to voice actors and workers in general. During the 2024 SAG-AFTRA interactive media strike, she argued that artificial intelligence would affect us all. So far, thanks to resistance from gamers, generated content has largely been excluded from final games.

Source: PCGamer, GDC