UK actors union Equity escalates AI fight over digital body scans

Equity’s ballot doesn’t stop AI development, but it does meaningfully raise the cost of using it to replace human performers. By mobilizing a near-unanimous vote to refuse digital scans, the union is trying to lock in a new norm: AI can extend an actor’s presence, but only with explicit consent, clear terms and ongoing compensation. That’s a direct response to studios’ experiments with one-off scans and broad license clauses that could, in principle, fuel training data for generative models and synthetic doubles.

For the race to AGI, this is another example of labor pushing back on unconstrained model deployment in a high-visibility industry. It won’t slow down core research on world models or agentic systems, but it can shape where those systems are commercially deployed and under what conditions. If Equity succeeds in baking strong AI clauses into the Pact agreements covering most UK film and TV, expect similar language to migrate into other global contracts—especially as SAG-AFTRA and Equity increasingly coordinate narratives. Over time, these negotiated constraints become part of the practical governance layer around AGI-era models, even in the absence of formal regulation.