THE ACTORS COPILOT — WEEKLY AI UPDATE · The Actors Copilot Green Room

THE ACTORS COPILOT — WEEKLY AI UPDATE

Most of you already know where we stand on AI. We really dislike the idea of fully synthetic film replacing human creativity and human performance. We are firmly behind independent filmmakers, actors, writers and directors getting into a room, picking up a camera and making something themselves. These days, that can quite literally mean shooting a film on an iPhone.

But whether we like every development or not, AI is moving quickly, and actors need to understand what is happening around them. Awareness matters. Staying informed matters.

That is exactly why we bring you these weekly AI updates: not to tell you what to think, but to make sure you are aware of developments.

𝟏. 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒. 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄.

Reports from China say people are being paid significant sums to license their faces for use in AI-generated dramas, advertising and games. The important issue for actors is not whether somebody should or should not make that choice. It is whether that choice is genuinely informed.

Before licensing your face, voice or performance data, understand exactly what rights you are granting, for how long, in which territories, whether the material can be altered or sublicensed, and whether you retain any future control.

For actors: awareness is critical. Your likeness has value, and licensing it should always be a conscious decision rather than something buried in the small print.

Source article — Gulf News | 26 September 2026: People in China are renting their faces to AI — for up to $15,000

𝟐. 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐘𝐖𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐕𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐍 𝐉𝐄𝐅𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐘 𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐙𝐄𝐍𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐆: 𝐀𝐈 𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐆𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘

Former Disney and DreamWorks executive Jeffrey Katzenberg argued this week that Hollywood needs to stop treating AI as something that can simply be made to disappear and instead concentrate on establishing the terms under which it is used.

His central argument is an important one for creatives: technology may change, but human creativity remains the thing the technology cannot simply manufacture on demand.

For actors: this is very close to the position we have consistently taken at The Actors Copilot. AI can be a tool. The actor is not the tool. The conversation needs to be about consent, boundaries, compensation and control.

Source article — Variety | 24 September 2026: Jeffrey Katzenberg Says Hollywood Must Accept AI as a Tool

𝟑. 𝐓𝐎𝐌 𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐄: “𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍.”

Speaking at a BAFTA Life in Pictures event in London this week, Tom Cruise acknowledged that AI is coming and will inevitably become part of filmmaking, but strongly defended the enduring value of real human performance and audiences' desire to see “real things.”

For actors: new technology does not remove the fundamental reason actors exist. Audiences connect with human behaviour, vulnerability, unpredictability and lived experience.

Use technology where it helps you prepare, organise or create. But the performance remains yours.

Source article — Variety | 22 September 2026: Tom Cruise Says AI Is ‘Coming and It’s Going to Happen,’ but ‘People Want to See Real Things’

𝟒. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐏𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐁𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐑

OpenAI and Anthropic have urged the Australian government to reconsider its position preventing AI companies from using copyrighted Australian creative material to train AI models without permission.

Australian creative industries have pushed strongly in the opposite direction, arguing that creators should retain control over how their work is used and should be compensated appropriately. Reuters

For actors: this goes far beyond written material. The same basic argument surrounds performances, voices, images and creative work generally:

Who owns the material?

Who gave permission?

Who benefits financially?

Those questions are becoming central to the future of the creative industries.

Source article — Reuters | 22 September 2026: Anthropic, OpenAI call for Australia to relax ban on training of AI models

𝟓. 𝐀𝐈 𝐈𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐌 𝐁𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐀 𝐓𝐄𝐂𝐇 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓

Variety has also been examining a growing group of companies bringing AI directly into professional film production, from development and visualisation through to production and post-production.

This matters because the debate is shifting. We are no longer talking about whether filmmakers might use AI. Some already are.

For independent filmmakers particularly, some of these tools could lower costs and make things possible that previously required enormous budgets.

That can be genuinely exciting, but there is a distinction we must keep making:

Using AI to help somebody make a film is very different from using AI to remove the human beings who make films worth watching.

Source article — Variety: Variety coverage of AI filmmaking and Particle 6

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐆 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊

There is a common thread running through almost every significant AI story affecting our industry at the moment.

It isn't simply AI versus actors. It is about who controls the technology and on whose terms it is used.

At The Actors Copilot, we are not here to tell anybody they must embrace AI, nor are we here to tell them they must reject it. Our job is to make sure actors understand what is happening.

Because right now, awareness may be one of the most important protections an actor has.

Stay informed. Stay human. Stay ahead.

Love Tracey and Claire ❤️

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THE ACTORS COPILOT — WEEKLY AI UPDATE