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Actors have voted in favour of refusing to be digitally scanned in order to prevent their likeness being used by artificial intelligence in a pushback against the use of AI in the arts.
Members of the performing arts union Equity were asked if they would refuse to be scanned while on set, a common practice where actors have their likeness captured for future use, with 99% voting in favour of the move.
Equity’s general secretary, Paul Fleming, said: “Artificial intelligence is a generation-defining challenge. And for the first time in a generation, Equity’s film and TV members have shown that they are willing to take industrial action.
“Ninety percent of TV and film is made on these agreements. Over three-quarters of artists working on them are union members. This shows that the workforce is willing to significantly disrupt production unless they are respected, and [if] decades of erosion in terms and conditions begins to be reversed.”
The vote is an indicative ballot used by the union to show the strength of feeling on the issue, with more than 7,000 members polled on a 75% turnout. However, actors would not be legally protected if they refused to be scanned.
The union said it would write to Pact – the trade body representing the majority of producers and production companies in the UK – to negotiate new minimum standards for pay, as well as terms and conditions for actors working in film and TV.
Equity said it may hold a formal ballot depending on the outcome of the negotiations, which – if backed – would protect actors legally if they were being pressed to accept digital scanning on set.
The decision comes after months of debate and concerns over rights as AI becomes established in the creative industries, with big-name actors urging Equity members to back the calls to stop digital scanning.
Adrian Lester, Hugh Bonneville and Harriet Walter all supported the union’s campaign to ensure AI protections for performers are written into union agreements.
Bonneville said actors’ likenesses and voices should not be “exploited for the benefit of others without licence or consent”, while Lester said actors who were just starting out found it hard to push back against body scanning.
In October, Olivia Williams told the Guardian that performers are regularly pressed to have their bodies scanned on set without having a say over how their data is later used.
The Dune star argued that actors should have as much control over the data harvested from scans of their body as they do over nudity scenes.
Williams said there were clauses in contracts that appeared to give studios carte blanche over a performer’s likeness “on all platforms now existing or yet to be devised throughout the universe in perpetuity”.
The arrival of the first AI actor, Tilly Norwood, further heightened concerns and demands for formal agreements on what is and is not permissible.
In 2023, concerns over AI were at the heart of the Hollywood writers’ strike. Both writers and actors argued that unchecked AI could dramatically reshape Hollywood and undermine their roles.
