Ben Stiller, Paul McCartney and Ron Howard were among the over 400 Hollywood stars and industry workers who signed an open letter this week urging President Donald Trump to protect artificial intelligence copyright rules.
“We firmly believe that America’s global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries,” the letter, addressed to Trump’s Office of Science and Technology Policy and shared by Deadline and Variety, began.
“America’s arts and entertainment industry supports over 2.3M American jobs with over $229Bn in wages annually, while providing the foundation for American democratic influence and soft power abroad. But AI companies are asking to undermine this economic and cultural strength by weakening copyright protections for the films, television series, artworks, writing, music, and voices used to train AI models at the core of multi-billion-dollar corporate valuations.”
The letter was submitted as part of comments on the Trump administration’s U.S. AI Action Plan.
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?
OpenAI and Google recently put forth their own submissions to the Office of Science and Technology asking their respective companies to be able to train their models on copyrighted material.
“The federal government can both secure Americans’ freedom to learn from AI and avoid forfeiting our AI lead to the PRC by preserving American AI models’ ability to learn from copyrighted material,” OpenAI’s letter states.
Google’s states, “Balanced copyright rules, such as fair use and text-and-data mining exceptions, have been critical to enabling AI systems to learn from prior knowledge and publicly available data, unlocking scientific and social advances. These exceptions allow for the use of copyrighted, publicly available material for AI training without significantly impacting rightsholders and avoid often highly unpredictable, imbalanced, and lengthy negotiations with data holders during model development or scientific experimentation.”
Hollywood’s letter counters, “There is no reason to weaken or eliminate the copyright protections that have helped America flourish. Not when AI companies can use our copyrighted material by simply doing what the law requires: negotiating appropriate licenses with copyright holders — just as every other industry does.
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“Access to America’s creative catalog of films, writing, video content, and music is not a matter of national security. They do not require a government-mandated exemption from existing U.S. copyright law.
“For nearly 250 years, U.S. copyright law has balanced creator’s rights with the needs of the public, creating the world’s most vibrant creative economy. We recommend that the American AI Action Plan uphold existing copyright frameworks to maintain the strength of America’s creative and knowledge industries, as well as American cultural influence abroad.”
While a large group of A-listers are rallying against AI, a team of top-grossing directors is openly embracing the technology.
Joe and Anthony Russo, the brothers behind some of Marvel’s biggest hits, like “Avengers: Endgame,” recently released their film “The Electric State” on Netflix, starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt.
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The film tells the story of a world full of powerful robots dominating the landscape and touches on the subject of AI.
Joe told The Sunday Times this week that they used AI for some voice modulation in “The Electric State” and that AI use is more prevalent in Hollywood than people are willing to admit.
“There’s a lot of finger-pointing and hyperbole because people are afraid,” Joe said. “They don’t understand. But ultimately you’ll see AI used more significantly.”
He continued, “Also, AI is in its generative state now, where it has, as we call them, hallucinations. You can’t do mission-critical work with something that hallucinates. That is a reason self-driving cars haven’t taken over or why AI surgery is not taking place worldwide. But in its generative state, AI is best suited towards creativity.”
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AI, especially generative AI, has been a divisive topic in Hollywood since before the strikes by writers and actors in 2023.
Both unions shut down the industry for almost six months, but it was “necessary at the time,” SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told Fox News Digital last year.
“Our members suffered. Other workers in the industry suffered. The industry suffered. It was necessary at that time. I wish it hadn’t been,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “I mean, to me, when I look at the ultimate agreement, I feel like the companies could have made this deal with us on July 12, and this entire thing could have been avoided, and yet they refused. And so that’s very frustrating.
“On the other hand, it was essential that we be out ahead of the implementation of AI. If we were trying to negotiate this after the industry had already started using it in a big way, it would be impossible to actually sort of put that genie back in the bottle. And so I feel really good that we successfully anticipated this challenge.”
At this month’s SXSW festival, SAG-AFTRA held a panel addressing the continued effect of AI on Hollywood.
WATCH: SAG-AFTRA REP ON WHY THE ‘DEVASTATING’ HOLLYWOOD STRIKES LAST YEAR WERE ‘NECESSARY’
“The copyright issue is a very big deal to the studios, and, for our folks, it’s been good, in that [employers] do really want to hear from our people because if something isn’t [protected under] copyright — if anybody can make Superman’s suit, and you don’t own it anymore — that’s very bad,” Vanessa Holtgrewe, IATSE international vice president & assistant department director of motion picture and television production, said in a press release on the union’s website.
“So, they’re being very cautious and careful about AI.”
DGA Associate National Executive Director & Western Executive Director Rebecca Rhine added, “Ultimately, there has to be some federal legislation, and I think all the unions are discussing among themselves about what approaches may bear the most fruit.”
