Equity’s indicative ballot said 99% of voters would refuse to be digitally scanned in the workplace in order to obtain stronger protections against AI use. UPDATE (18/12/25): UK actors have voted in favour of refusing digital scanning on set until AI protections are agreed, according to performers’ union Equity (via the Guardian). The poll of ... UK actors’ union says it will oppose digital scanning if AI concerns not dealt with
Equity’s indicative ballot said 99% of voters would refuse to be digitally scanned in the workplace in order to obtain stronger protections against AI use.
UPDATE (18/12/25):
UK actors have voted in favour of refusing digital scanning on set until AI protections are agreed, according to performers’ union Equity (via the Guardian).
The poll of 7000 members achieved a 75% turnout, including big names like Adrian Lester, Hugh Bonneville and Harriet Walter, but was only an indicative ballot to determine strength of feeling on the issue, meaning members would have no legal protection should they refuse digital scanning during their work. Unsurprisingly, 99% of those voters said they would be willing to withhold permission should greater AI protections not be forthcoming.
Equity General Secretary, Paul Fleming, told the Guardian: “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.”
Equity says it plans to write to producer’s trade body, Pact, to open negotiations on minimum standards of pay and other terms and conditions (presumably including AI and digital permissions). Depending on the outcome of those negotiations, it says it may hold a further, formal ballot which would give more concrete protections to workers withholding their labour.
The original story (04/12/25) follows:
Almost two years to the day since this nonsense was (mostly) sorted out in the US, the UK’s major actors’ union is still at loggerheads with the producers’ trade body (Pact) over AI protections in the film and TV industry.
Foremost in negotiations at the moment is the practice of digital scanning – the practice of creating and storing digital likenesses of actors and extras on set which predates the emergence of an AI bubble by several years. The concern amongst performers – particularly extras, who don’t usually have the power to say no to much – is that this data could now be used to train AI models and put them out of work (though, as Deadline notes, there’s no indication this is actually happening yet).
Now Equity, representing 50,000 performers across the UK, has issued a ballot to 7,000 actors to ask the following: “Are you prepared to refuse digital scanning on set to secure adequate AI protections?” The proposed move would come short of strike action, and seems specifically intended to force producers to consider stronger protections against this and other uses of AI (if they vote no, I’ll eat my digital hat). The ballot closes on 18th December.
A potential model agreement could be the one actors’ union SAG-AFTRA struck with studios in 2023, which requires producers to seek “informed consent” before whipping out the Avatar-style tech (basically, putting anything about digital replicas in big letters in contracts). The current Pact-Equity agreement, which has been in the works for months, makes no reference to AI at all, which has made everyone not writing contracts a little paranoid.
Pact Deputy CEO Max Rumney has reiterated that the body’s members are selling or monetising digital replicas at the moment, nor are they using performers’ data to create additional content. He added Equity “wants future facing protections and we don’t know what the future looks like” – similar arguments were made on the same subject in the US in 2023.
Equity General Secretary Paul Fleming told Deadline: “If bosses can’t ensure someone’s likeness and work won’t be used without their consent, why should performers consent to be digitally scanned in the first place? This indicative ballot gives Equity members an opportunity to send a clear message to the industry: that it is a basic right of performers to have autonomy over their own personhood and identity.”
An affirmative ballot will trigger a subsequent statutory ballot in the new year to check everyone’s sure about their answer (trade unions are weird) which would commit performers to refusing digital scanning on set en-masse.
