‘Have we put ourselves out of a job?’: film and TV industry concerns over body scanning on set | AI

For performers on TV or movie sets, it is not uncommon to receive a request to enter a booth packed with dozens of cameras ready to capture their likeness from every possible angle. But with the cast and crew of productions already concerned about the coming role of AI in the industry, it is a increasingly difficult undertaking.

“It happens without warning,” says Olivia Williams, who adds that she has been scanned more times than she can remember during a career that spans The sixth sense Unpleasant Dune: Prophecy.

“You’re on set. You’re dressed up. A friendly assistant director who already knows you, who brings you tea and holds your phone while you act, says that the VFX [visual effects] team is here today – and just after you finish the scene, can you just go to the VFX bus? And there you go.

“Actors are generally people-pleaser. Worrying about scanning while you’re in the middle of a scene kills your creativity and creates the fear that you’ll never work again, that your agent will drop you. So you comply.”

Lead and supporting actors, stunt performers and dancers have all told the Guardian of similar experiences on set, being led into scanners, despite uncertainty over their rights in relation to the biometric data produced.

Williams said performers were told that “if you want to be in the scene, or if you want the scene to look cool while the alien is crawling out of your brain,” scans were needed.

The experience has been causing concern for some time, but the development of ‘AI doubles’ for performers and claims of the arrival of ‘AI actors’ have increased the urgency to clarify what exactly happens to the data collected on set.

These concerns were brought to light through the publicity surrounding them an AI actor named “Tilly Norwood”. It seems unlikely that the company behind the creation will generate the first AI star, but it has emphasized an ongoing battle to clarify artists’ rights.

Williams decided to stick her head above the ground out of concern for young actors just starting out, and out of the existential threat posed by performers known in the industry as supporting artists (SAs), who populate the audience and backdrops of a show.

Dave Watts, a veteran SA who has appeared in numerous superhero films and major productions, has been scanned several times. He said there are wider implications for the sector.

“I can already hear crew members saying, ‘Honestly, we don’t even need to do this anymore. We can just ask AI to create a crowd of 1,000 people based on information that’s already been captured,'” he said.

“If you don’t have the usual audience of 100, 200 or 500 SAs at a big production, then you don’t need assistant directors looking after them, and you don’t need hair and makeup people. You don’t need costume people, costume accessories, all the caterers, all the drivers and location marshals. There’s a whole range of jobs there that AI is effectively putting at risk.”

A dancer who spoke anonymously because he feared his work would affect their work raised similar comments about the pressure to be scanned and the use of the data. “Filming is grueling – you get up at three in the morning,” they said. “It’s now 8 p.m. and you can’t go home until you’ve done it. The way it happens, you just really don’t have a choice.

“It makes you wonder: Have we all put ourselves out of work? It makes you feel a bit like a fool.”

Alex Lawrence-Archer, a data rights lawyer from the law firm AWO who has worked with actors on the issue, said artists were hampered by a morass of complicated, overlapping laws. He said it was crucial for them to make clearer agreements going into a production, rather than trying to reclaim their data afterwards.

“Contracts are often quite poorly drafted, often to industry standard and have been around for years,” he says. “They’re really not designed with these kinds of technologies in mind. What you have is a kind of vacuum of uncertainty. In that vacuum, AI developers and studios are doing as much as they can get away with.

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“It’s the future examples of training that actors and reps really need to focus on. They need to negotiate better contracts that are clearer and that truly reflect a fair agreement between actors, studios and AI developers.”

There are now signs of an incipient uprising. At a recent shoot, artists were given advance notice of the scans after concerns were raised.

“The cast has collectively resisted the atmosphere of ambushing actors,” said one of the performers, on condition of anonymity. “We were able to get them to include some sort of addendum in our agreement, which basically prevents them from using the digital scans for anything other than the show without our written permission.”

The fight for rights in the face of the AI ​​industry’s thirst for data may seem hopeless. Such data can be collected from various images and sources that bypass professional artists. However, there is consensus on efforts to take back some control.

“The technology could be used in a reductionist way, drastically reducing the need for human performers, or it could be used to promote creativity and build things out in a really positive way,” says Theo Morton, a professional stunt performer and member of the British Stunt Register. “There’s a lot of uncertainty and no one really knows. That’s why it’s so important to create contractual safeguards to protect against this potential erosion of control that could occur.”

Williams, however, is among those who despair that control has already been lost.

The big unknown is where exactly the AI ​​models for data training come from. Lawrence-Archer said this remained a closely guarded secret but needed to be revealed. He also cautioned against limiting the issue to additional compensation for artists.

“The AI ​​industry depends on large amounts of data,” he said. “Someone is collecting it. We know these questions are very sensitive to AI developers and studios. We have supported actors to make these data access requests in an effort to learn more. I personally know actors who have been paid by AI companies to withdraw these requests.”

“We must build a world where actors’ human creativity, connection, and performance continue to be valued. If we focus solely on legal and compensation issues, we risk actors ultimately becoming data gig workers, rather than the creative artists they are.”