Actors have voted to refuse digital scanning to prevent their likeness being used by artificial intelligence in a pushback against 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 in which actors’ likeness is captured for future use – with 99% voting in favour of the move.
The 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 per cent 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 was an indicative ballot designed to demonstrate 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 give actors legal protection if they were being pressed to accept digital scanning on set.
The decision comes after months of debate and growing concern about performers’ rights as AI becomes embedded in the creative industries, with high-profile actors urging Equity members to support the push to stop digital scanning.
Adrian Lester, Hugh Bonneville and Harriet Walter have backed 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 at the start of their careers often found it difficult to push back against body scanning.
In October, Olivia Williams told the Guardian that performers were routinely pressed to have their bodies scanned on set without having a say over how the data was later used.
The Dune star argued that actors should have as much control over data harvested from body scans as they do over nudity scenes. She said some contracts included clauses 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, with writers and actors warning that unchecked use of the technology could radically reshape the industry and undermine their roles.
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