Hundreds of US-based actors, writers and producers write open letter to stop companies looking to ‘freely exploit’ creative industry
Over 400 US-based actors, writers, directors, producers, musicians and executives have signed an open letter calling on the US government to uphold copyright laws for the training of artificial intelligence.
Among the signatories to the letter are Guillermo del Toro, Natasha Lyonne, Paul McCartney, Cynthia Erivo, Cate Blanchett, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Cord Jefferson, Ben Stiller, Bette Midler, Cate Blanchett and Ava Duvernay.
The open letter has been sent to the White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) in response to the US AI Action Plan.
It is a response to recent submissions from OpenAI and Google that claim domestic law either allows or should allow AI companies to train on copyrighted works, without any compensation or permission of copyright owners.
“We firmly believe that America’s global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries,” said the letter.
It argued that Google and OpenAI want a special government exemption “so they can freely exploit America’s creative and knowledge industries, despite their substantial revenues and available funds”.
“There is no reason to weaken or eliminate the copyright protections that have helped America flourish,” said the letter, which states that the entertainment industry supports more than 2.3 million jobs in the US and pays more than $229bn in wages annually.
“When tech and AI companies demand unfettered access to all data and information, they’re not just threatening movies, books, and music, but the work of all writers, publishers, photographers, scientists, architects, engineers, designers, doctors, software developers, and all other professionals who work with computers and generate intellectual property.”
Actors and writers have long fought against the expansion of AI amid fears it will undermine their creative work. AI was one of the key causes of the 2023 actors and writers’ strikes.
Other signatories to the letter include Paul Simon, Aubrey Plaza, Ángel Manuel Soto, Ron Howard, Taika Waititi, Lily Gladstone, Sam Mendes, Rian Johnson, Paul Giamatti, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Alfonso Cuaron, Olivia Wilde, Judd Apatow, Kim Gordon, Chris Rock, Mark Ruffalo and Michaela Coel.
The UK screen sectors are mounting a similar copyright-driven response to the UK government’s plans to embrace AI across all industries.
A version of this story first appeared on our sister site, Screen.
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