The UK performers' union Equity used the first anniversary of AI avatar Tilly Norwood, launched at the Zurich Film Festival on 27 September 2025, to renew its call for AI safeguards in film and television and for new personality rights that would cover everyone's voice and likeness. The union says her arrival sharpened its focus on explicit protections at work.
On the industrial side, Equity says its negotiations with Pact, the producers' trade body, are at an advanced stage, and that it is close to securing the first automatic AI protections for UK film and TV performers. These would cover transparency, consent and payment, alongside an industry commitment to strongly prefer human performers.
General secretary Paul W Fleming said the union's collective agreements would make permission and payment for a performer's voice or likeness a required part of UK film and TV contracts, and that Equity would chase minimum standards in every part of entertainment, since exploitation of a precarious workforce is nothing new.
Beyond its own members, Equity wants Andy Burnham's government to move quickly on personality rights for the whole public, describing unauthorised, malicious and sexualised AI replicas as a threat to democracy, decency and wellbeing. The statement also asks casting platforms to reject AI uses that cut artists' work, producers to commit to human performance, and workers to bargain together.
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