UK representatives vote to reject digital scanning in response to artificial intelligence | television

Actors voted to reject digital scanning to prevent AI from using their images in the fight against AI in the arts.

Members of performing arts union Equity were asked whether they would refuse to be scanned while on set, a common practice by which photographs of actors are taken for future use – with 99% voting in favor of the move.

Secretary General, Paul Fleming, said: “Artificial intelligence is the challenge that defines our generation. For the first time in a generation, Equity’s film and TV members have shown they are ready to take industrial action.

“Ninety percent of television shows and films are produced under these agreements. More than three-quarters of the artists working in 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 are beginning to ease.

The vote was an indicative ballot aimed at showing the strength of feeling towards this issue, as more than 7,000 members were polled with a turnout rate of 75%. However, representatives will not have legal protection if they refuse to be scanned.

The union said it would write to Pact, the trade body representing the majority of UK producers and production companies, to negotiate new minimum wage standards, 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 negotiations, which, if upheld, would give actors legal protection if they are pressured to accept digital scanning on set.

The decision comes after months of debate and growing concerns over the rights of performers as artificial intelligence becomes an integral part of the creative industries, with prominent representatives urging members of Equity to support the push to stop digital scanning.

Adrian Lister, Hugh Bonneville and Harriet Walter supported the union’s campaign to ensure AI protections for performers were written into union agreements.

Bonneville said actors’ shapes and voices should not be “exploited for the benefit of others without license or consent,” while Lester said actors early in their careers often find it difficult to step back from body scanning.

In October, Olivia Williams told The Guardian that performers were routinely pressured to scan their bodies during filming without having a say in how the data was used later.

The Dune star said actors should have as much control over the data collected from body scans as they do in nudity scenes. Some contracts included clauses that appeared to give studios carte blanche regarding the performer’s likeness “on all platforms now existing or yet to be invented throughout the universe in perpetuity,” she said.

The arrival of the first AI “representative,” Tilly Norwood, has heightened concerns and calls for formal agreements on what is and is not permissible.

In 2023, concerns about artificial intelligence were at the heart of the Hollywood writers’ strike, with writers and actors warning that uncontrolled use of the technology could radically reshape the industry and undermine their roles.