Actors have voted overwhelmingly to refuse digital scanning on set in a bid to secure adequate AI protections.
Equity – the UK’s largest acting union – announced the results of an indicative industrial action ballot on Thursday.
With a turnout of over 75%, over 99% of those who voted said they would be prepared to refuse a set scan.
There have been growing concerns among actors that their work, voice and likeness are being used without their explicit consent, with Equity pushing for transparency of terms, and fair remuneration for usage via an enforced industry standard.
Equity general secretary Paul W Fleming announced the results
Announcing the results at Equity’s headquarters in Covent Garden, Equity 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 decades of erosion in terms and conditions begin to be reversed.
“The US streamers and PACT need to step away from the brink, and respect this show of strength. We need adequate AI protections which build on, not merely replicate, those agreed after the SAG-AFTRA strike in the USA over two years ago.”
The vote follows unrest in the US in 2023, when members of Equity’s sister union, SAG-AFTRA, went on strike for four months over issues including artificial intelligence protections.
While nearly all those who voted in the Equity ballot said they would be prepared to take industrial action, Mr Flemming insisted “industrial action is not an inevitability”. “It is a choice to be made by the producers,” he said.
‘A big AI sausage machine’
The vote came after 18 months of talks with the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (Pact), the trade body representing the majority of film and TV production companies in the UK.
While they say they have made significant progress in negotiations on protecting performers’ rights when it comes to working with digital replicas (digital copies of real performers) and synthetic performers (artificially generated performers), the use of data, such as recorded performances or digital scans, to train AI systems, remains a sticking point.
Mr Flemming said: “The ball is in [Pact’s] court when we return to the table in January.” He warned that if negotiations did not produce a better AI deal, Equity’s next step would be a statutory ballot for industrial action.
A rally earlier this year. Pic: Mark Thomas
Speaking to Sky News a little later, Mr Flemming dubbed the current system “a big AI sausage machine”, saying its members’ voice, likeness, and performance data was increasingly being “used in commercial exploitation by American streamers, and also British independent producers and broadcasters”.
Reminiscent of an episode of black comedy Black Mirror, he said that for some of the union’s high-profile members, the “big anxiety is creating entire AI characters of themselves”.
Mr Flemming went on: “We don’t want to stop AI. What we want to do is regulated.“
Dispute puts Equity and actors on collision course
Battle lines drawn. Equity’s members have fired a clear warning shot to producers.
Just a few years ago, the film and TV industry ground to a halt when actors and writers in the US walked out over AI and pay.
While this industrial action stops short of a strike like that, we could in theory, still see substantial delays to productions if Equity performers make good on their threat to refuse to be scanned on set.
How often does a scenario like that come up? Equity says it’s now happening frequently.
As The Crown star Bertie Carvel told me, “it is one of the first things that happens these days when you go on to a major film set”.
He added: “Why would I collude in that? Well, the answer is because producers will say, unless you do this, we won’t give you the job.”
And that’s the point of this collective stand. It is much harder as an individual to say no. Some have, but many have felt they could not
This is a line in the sand. Given the speed of society’s move towards AI, Equity knows that if it fails to get this right, it’s signing the death warrant on many of its members’ careers.
If it fails to get the AI demands ironed out now in the small print of new working agreements with producers’ union PACT, it will be too late to demand these protections retrospectively.
This indicative ballot might not be a binding decision to take industrial action, but it really does give an idea of the strength of feeling.
For now, this is a cliff-hanger of an ending as we wait to see who blinks first – producers or performers?
A big moment for the UK’s film and TV industry
A Pact spokesperson told Sky News: “The majority of productions don’t scan cast. In some types of production (such as those with SFX), scanning has taken place for many years – long before new technologies like Generative AI. Cast are informed when and why they are being scanned – most commonly for editing purposes. Producers abide by the legal requirements for the treatment and storage of scans.
“During the recent negotiations, Pact offered Equity terms on AI consistent with those that are in place in other countries. Equity is asking for future-facing protections that extend beyond the established safeguards already proven to protect actors around the world.”
Pact said discussions between the two bodies would continue.
It’s the first time such a large section of Equity’s membership – over 7,000 performers working across TV and film – has been balloted, and as such is a significant moment for the UK’s film and TV industry.
As an indicative ballot, it’s not binding, nor would it legally cover members who refuse to be digitally scanned on set.
It acts as a warning shot to the industry, showing the level of support the union has for action, short of a strike.
Laurence Olivier Award-winning actor Bertie Carvel. Pic: Jayson Mansary
‘AI can’t do creativity’
Speaking after the vote, Laurence Olivier Award-winning actor Bertie Carvel, who is an active member of Equity and a member of its screen and new media committee, told Sky News he had voted “yes”.
Explaining how set scanning works, The Crown star, who works across both screen and stage, said: “You’re ushered into a studio, sometimes a mobile pod. I’ve had it done in the middle of muddy fields on location, surrounded by hundreds of cameras in every direction, 360 degrees.
“Within seconds, thousands of images have been captured that allow for a 3D replica – a computerised model of you to be built. And the question is what happens to that model next.”
Describing feeling obliged to be scanned as “uncomfortable”, he added: “I don’t want this technology in the world, if I’m honest. It’s contributing almost inevitably to my own obsolescence. Why would I collude in that?
“The answer is because producers will say, unless you do this, we won’t give you the job. And that’s why we need to stand together as a union.”
Speaking to Sky News about AI earlier in the day, actor Riz Ahmed, who is currently starring in a modern re-imagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, said: “I don’t think you can be relaxed about something that’s gonna change our lives so dramatically.
“But I do think that, in a way, AI can’t do creativity. I think AI can make things, it can make finished products, but without friction, without struggle to get there, things don’t have meaning. A frictionless life is a meaningless life.”
