Fox Nation premieres 'Houdini: Back From the Dead' on Oct 14

SAG-AFTRA sends its 2026 TV Animation deal to a member vote

SAG-AFTRA's animation voice actors vote until Oct 29 on a four-year deal whose AI terms are one sentence long, and the live-action text it says it imports exempts non-human characters. The animation clause itself is not yet public.

SAG-AFTRA's animation voice actors have until 5pm Pacific on Oct 29 to ratify a four-year TV Animation Agreement, and the AI terms they are voting on run to one sentence. The union says the deal adds "the improvements from the 2026 live action agreements" while keeping the existing animation terms, but no clause text has been published.

Animation already has a line live action never won: the 2024 deal says a voice actor "includes only humans," and a replica of a real actor's voice needs separate consent and pay. A synthetic voice that resembles no one needs only notice to the union and bargaining over pay, if any.

The live-action text the union says it imported favors human performers unless a studio sees "significant additional value" in a synthetic. That same text exempts non-human characters, which covers a lot of what voice actors play, and its human-preference test expires in June 2030. Nobody outside the bargaining room can say yet whether either limit came across.

The money is clearer: minimums rise 3% a year, backdated to July, and streaming residuals now match live action. Members get an informational Zoom on Oct 9, the first real chance for the clause text to surface.

In practice, if you cast a human voice and plan to extend it with a model, get separate written consent for the replica and pay for its use, because that is what union actors already expect from the big studios.

Source: SAG-AFTRA release, Oct 5, 2026; 2023 TV Animation and 2026 TV/Theatrical MOAs on amptp.org.

IICT and YouTube premiere four AI-made Indian short films from 'Create with AI', from Chanakya to Devi: The Nine Astras

IICT and YouTube screened four AI-made Indian films in Mumbai, backed by tool credits and mentors with no cash figure published. Only Chekavar and DEVI could be found on YouTube on Oct 9.

Senior officials from India's information ministry sat down in Mumbai on Wednesday to watch four films made largely with generative AI, screened by the state-backed Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) and YouTube under their Create with AI program. When we checked YouTube's data on Friday morning, only two of them could be found online.

Chekavar, Avium Studios' 30-minute Hindi period drama written and directed by Gijo Uthuppu, and DEVI: The Nine Astras, Kalpanik Films' nine-episode series from Vishal Yoman and Ayushi Anand, are live on their studios' channels. CHANAKYA: The Mind of an Empire from Eleventh Door Studio and Laika from Karthik Kult Kreations are not on those channels or in search, and IICT has not said where they are.

The backing was YouTube's AI tool credits plus IICT's facilities and mentors, with no cash figure or film budget published, and every tool the makers named is Google's. The studios were already making AI work before the program picked them; no open call was published.

In practice, the method worth copying is Chekavar's. The team filmed real Kalari practitioners, the martial artists of Kerala, doing genuine movement and weapons work as reference, then generated the battle around that footage, so the fight reads because the bodies were real.

Source: Government of India release (PIB Mumbai), Oct 7, 2026; YouTube data, Oct 9.