Why AI split the industry.

Every line here links to its source. Where something is still moving, we say so. Nothing here is legal advice.

What the strikes won

Writers won the line that AI isn't a writer, and that nobody can make them use it. Under the 2023 Writers Guild of America agreement, material produced by AI isn't literary material, a company can't require a writer to use AI software, and it must say if material it hands a writer was AI-generated. The 2026 agreement keeps those protections and adds written notice to the Guild if scripts are licensed to train commercial AI. WGA: Know your rights, AI

Actors won the right to say yes or no, in writing, before a digital copy of them is made or changed. The 2023 SAG-AFTRA film and TV contract requires consent for digital replicas and digital alteration, notice and bargaining if a synthetic performer replaces a human role, and estate or union consent after death. Loeb & Loeb, 13 November 2023

In 2026 SAG-AFTRA members ratified a new four-year deal, running to 30 June 2030, with stronger AI and digital replica protections. Screen Daily

In the UK

In an indicative ballot in December 2025, 99% of Equity members who voted said they'd refuse to be digitally scanned on set without proper protection. The ballot wasn't binding. Televisual, 19 December 2025

Pact sent improved AI wording in January 2026. In June 2026 Equity said there were still no AI protections in the Equity and Pact agreement, and asked for terms that match SAG-AFTRA's. Talks were still going at our last check, in November 2026. The Canary, June 2026

Bectu and the Writers' Guild of Great Britain both welcomed the government dropping its plan to let AI train on creative work unless owners opted out. Both want consent, credit and fair pay, and the WGGB says transparency is vital. Bectu, 18 March 2026; Advanced Television, 19 March 2026

The full record, union by union, is on guild and union positions.

Copyright

The argument underneath everything is training data: whose work the models learned from, and whether anyone asked.

• Getty Images v Stability AI (UK). The High Court rejected Getty's secondary infringement claim in November 2025, and Getty was given permission to appeal in December 2025. CMS case tracker
• Disney and Universal v Midjourney (US). Filed in June 2025 over the use of the studios' characters. Ongoing at our last check. Insurance Journal, 12 June 2025
• Disney and OpenAI. In December 2025 Disney agreed to invest in OpenAI and license its characters for Sora. Equity said assurances weren't enough without real protections for artists. BroadwayWorld, 11 December 2025
• The UK government said in March 2026 that a broad copyright exception with an opt-out is no longer its preferred way forward. GOV.UK

Flashpoints

Tilly Norwood. In 2025 a synthetic "actress" made by an AI company was presented at the Zurich Film Festival as a future star. SAG-AFTRA said it opposes replacing human performers with synthetics, and that the character was built from real performers' work without their consent or pay. Fox Business, 1 October 2025

The Brutalist. In January 2025 the film's editor said in an interview that an AI voice tool had been used to refine the actors' Hungarian dialogue. The director said only some Hungarian vowels were touched, the performances were entirely the actors' own, and the buildings were drawn by hand, not by AI. Because people heard it from an interview rather than from the production, it became a row. The lesson: say what you used, early and precisely. NBC News

Voices

People who make films don't agree, and that's the honest picture.

• Ben Affleck argued in November 2024 that AI copies rather than creates, and lacks the taste to know where a piece of work should end: "Art is knowing when to stop." He also expected it to take cost out of the most labour-heavy work, and thought VFX would feel it first. Fortune, 19 November 2024
• Affleck again, with Matt Damon on The Joe Rogan Experience in January 2026, said AI writing drifts towards the average and can't be relied on, though it helps with brainstorming. He dismissed fully AI-made films and synthetic actors. BroBible, 19 January 2026
• He has also built with it. His company InterPositive makes post tools trained on a production's own footage, for colour, sound, relighting and VFX. Netflix bought it in March 2026, and he spoke about keeping human judgement at the centre of storytelling. Engadget In October 2026 he said he'd used AI for many tasks on his Netflix film Animals, and described it as another kind of computing. Express Tribune, 2 October 2026
• Guillermo del Toro said in October 2025, while promoting Frankenstein, that he has no interest in generative AI and never will. NPR, October 2025
• Frank Walsh, production designer, on a panel at BSC Expo in February 2026, called AI another tool in the box: quick for rough visuals to show a director, then an artist takes over, and frustrating when you need something specific. IBC, 16 February 2026
• The unions keep coming back to the same things: consent, credit and pay. See guild and union positions.