Kevin Bacon and Rosario Dawson are among the thousands of Hollywood creatives who have signed an open letter calling out the “major” threat of allowing generative AI to train on their work.
“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works and must not be permitted,” the group said in an open letter released Tuesday.
Today we’re publishing a statement on AI training, signed by 10,000+ creators already:
— Ed Newton-Rex (@ednewtonrex) October 22, 2024
“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted.”
Signatories include… pic.twitter.com/AqVaEThMs4
The list of signees ranged from creatives within the entertainment industry, including writers, musicians, historians and more. The statement is the latest callout from Hollywood stars against the rise of artificial intelligence, one of the issues that ultimately prolonged the standoff between members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (SAG-AFTRA), and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) during the 118-day strike over summer 2023.
In November 2023, SAG-AFTRA released an 18-page summary of its deal with Hollywood studios estimated to be worth just over $1 billion. As part of the agreement, which included details about a streaming fund, diversity and intimacy coordinators, AI protections were also outlined: studios must provide actors with a full description of how they plan to use an AI-generated “digital replica” on a project, and must gain their consent based on that information, among other provisions.
And even with the new AI protections California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law, SAG-AFTRA general counsel Jeffrey Bennett said it’s still no “silver bullet” that will solve all the problems that come with the technology.
“It’s a web of protections,” Bennett explained to TheWrap’s Jeremy Fuster at this year’s TheGrill summit, while discussing the union’s ongoing efforts to pass laws on the state, federal and local level to protect performers from unauthorized use of their likenesses. “None of these are the silver bullet that’s going to solve problems that we’re going to have to deal with when it comes to digital replication or synthetic content.”
Check out some of the other signees below:
- Björn Ulvaeus, Songwriter
- Sir John Rutter, Composer and Conductor
- Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, Novelist
- Julianne Moore
- Thom Yorke, Musician
- James Patterson, Author
- Kevin Bacon
- Sir Ian Rankin, Novelist
- Kate McKinnon
- Kate Mosse CBE, Author
- Malorie Blackman OBE, Author
- Max Richter, Composer
- Rosario Dawson
- William Boyd CBE, Novelist
- Val McDermid, Writer
- Tracy Chevalier, Author
- F. Murray Abraham
- Melissa Joan Hart
- Rosie O’Donnell
- Billy Bragg, Songwriter and author
- Lady Antonia Fraser, Author
- Roger McGough CBE, Poet
- Geoff Barrow, Producer & Composer
- Margaret Drabble DBE, AuthorPeter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at Oxford University, Author
- Robert Smith, Musician
- Ed O’Brien, Musician
- Joe Goddard, Musician
- Philip Selway, Musician
- Jason Kay, Musician
- Nitin Sawhney CBE, D.Mus, Composer / producer
- Paula Hawkins, Writer
- Lynn Goldsmith, Photographer , Painter
- James Runcie, Writer
- Ted Chiang, Writer
- Joanne Harris, Author
- Emma Donoghue, Writer
- Philippa Gregory, Historian Novelist Playwright
- Jonny Greenwood, Musician
- Colin Greenwood, Musician
- Elizabeth Fremantle, Author
- Madeline Miller, Writer
- Sean Astin, Actor
- Emily St. John Mandel, Writer
- Ann Patchett, Writer
- AURORA, Musician
- Harlan Coben, Author
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