{"id":634576,"date":"2025-12-15T20:02:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T20:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/634576\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T20:02:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T20:02:32","slug":"harriet-walter-hugh-bonneville-say-vote-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/634576\/","title":{"rendered":"Harriet Walter & Hugh Bonneville Say Vote “Yes”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHarriet Walter<\/a> and Hugh Bonneville<\/a> have urged actors union members to vote \u201cyes\u201d in the landmark ballot that could lead thousands of actors to refuse to be digitally scanned on set. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Succession and Downton Abbey stars are among thousands of performers who have backed Equity<\/a>\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\n\tVia an indicative ballot, Equity is asking its 7,000 film and TV members whether they would refuse to be scanned as it seeks artificial intelligence guardrails in its contracts with producer trade body Pact. The indicative ballot isn\u2019t binding <\/a>but could lead to a statutory ballot that is, and this could eventually lead to strike action. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur likenesses and our voices are unique and must be valued accordingly, not exploited for the benefit of others without license or consent,\u201d said Bonneville. <\/p>\n

\n\tWalter added: \u201cAI<\/a> may be able to\u00a0write\u00a0novels, paint\u00a0pictures\u00a0and even simulate human actors but none of that can have any meaning beyond its own cleverness. We can admire the technology, but it is\u00a0ultimately meaningless\u00a0and damaging. Nothing can replace the experience of watching living sentient actors making thoughtful choices from moment to moment in response to other actors doing the same.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0what turns us on.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDeadline revealed the ballot last week and it runs down on Thursday, at which point Equity General Secretary Paul Fleming will reveal the results outside its West End HQ.<\/p>\n

\n\tFleming has said the move boils down to the Pact-Equity negotiations \u2013 which have been rumbling for two years \u2013 still failing to meet in the middle on AI.\u00a0Equity\u2019s fear is that actors are being digitally scanned and their data is then used without their consent, which could train AI models. There is no suggestion that this is happening at present.<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this month, Pact Deputy CEO Max Rumney told us his members are \u201cwell aware of their obligations under data protection law\u201d and have \u201cscanned actors for many years, long before AI was used in production.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGovernment reveals results of AI consultation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tElsewhere in the AI debate, a UK government response to the thorny copyright issue has been published, revealing that the vast majority (88%) of the respondents to its consultation want there to be strengthened copyright, which would require licensing in all cases before works were used for AI models. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe initial respnse is a victory for those who have been campaigning on stronger copyright laws. The government, which preferred an \u201copt out\u201d option for licensing, now has until March 18 to publish its report and impact assessment.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s loud and clear, there is widespread opposition from the creative industries to the Government\u2019s initial preferred option of an \u2018opt out\u2019 and a copyright exception for text and data mining,\u201d said Writers Guild of Great Britain General Secretary Ellie Peers. \u201cIf we are to see an end to the industrial-scale theft of writers\u2019 and other creators\u2019 work, and to protect the creators and creative industries of the future, then UK copyright needs to be enforced not weakened. We will see whether Ministers have been listening when they come back with their full report next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harriet Walter and Hugh Bonneville have urged actors union members to vote \u201cyes\u201d in the landmark ballot that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[323,144855,4080,77,5427,195937,70044,116654,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-634576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artifical-intelligence","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-equity","13":"tag-harriet-walter","14":"tag-hugh-bonneville","15":"tag-techline","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115725372410309961","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}