CLCF Members Tanner Mirrlees, Rafael Grohmann and Daphne Idiz presented “AI, Actors, and the Future of the Screen Industries: Craft, Contestation and Collective Bargaining,” to more than 300 members of ACTRA (the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) Toronto. CLCF thanks ACTRA Toronto President Kate Ziegler, Executive Director Rob Halpin, and AI Subcommittee Co-Chairs John Cleland and Cory Doran for the invitation and for fostering an important dialogue between union leaders, members and researchers. The project also acknowledges the contributions of CLCF collaborators, including Rafael Grohmann, Daphne Idiz, Mary Elizabeth Luka, and Helena Wright, whose ongoing research continues to advance understanding of AI’s impact on creative labour, and worker responses to disruptive change.
Tanner Mirrlees is the author of Work in the Digital Media and Entertainment Industries: A Critical Introduction (Routledge, 2025).
For more on the AI & Worker Mobilization in Arts, Culture and Media initiative, see here.
Professor
Tanner Mirrlees is a Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies (CDMS) at Ontario Tech University with a background in political economy of communications, critical cultural studies, and technology & society studies.
CLCF Co-Director & Assistant Professor
Rafael Grohmann is a Co-lead and Co-Director of the Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF) cluster and an Assistant Professor of Media Studies (Critical Platform Studies) at the University of Toronto. Rafael is the leader of the DigiLabour initiative and founding editor of the Platforms & Society journal.
CLCF Co-Director & Assistant Professor
Dr. Daphne Rena Idiz (she/her) is Assistant Professor in Film and Media Industries at York University. Her research investigates how media industries, cultural policy frameworks, and production cultures respond to and shape technological change, with a particular focus onstreaming and generative AI (GenAI).
