In what can only be absorbed as a bid to take its awful corporation crown back from other major contenders, statements from Electronic Arts in its most recent annual proxy filing see the gaming publisher clutch its pearls at the idea that workers want to form unions and regulators want to keep AI development in check.
The “business risks” outlined in the proxy filing nod towards the burgeoning movement of unionizing games workers, claiming that should such a wave hit EA, it would harm how it operates.
“In the U.S., there has been an increase in prominence in certain sectors of workers exercising their right to form or join a union. If significant employee populations were to unionize, we could experience operational changes that may materially impact our business.”
Another supposed risk to EA is the potential for government regulation on AI advancements and application, which the company claims would cause it to further limit product sales, “lessen engagement with profitable business models,” and expose it to increased costs related to liability fees and fines, which in turn would harm EA’s reputation.
We hasten to point out that if a company is worried about unions, then it might be doing things that unions are expressly built to stop. As for AI regulation, these outlined risks could be interpreted as EA slavering over ways to monetize AI tools. In either case, it would seem that the company has told on itself.
