Latest news with #U.S.AIActionPlan
Fox News
20-03-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Trump urged by Ben Stiller, Paul McCartney and hundreds of stars to protect AI copyright rules
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. 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. "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. 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." 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."
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ben Stiller, Mark Ruffalo and More Than 400 Hollywood Names Urge Trump to Not Let AI Companies ‘Exploit' Copyrighted Works
More than 400 Hollywood creative leaders signed an open letter to the Trump White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, urging the administration to not roll back copyright protections at the behest of AI companies. The filmmakers, writers, actors, musicians and others — which included Ben Stiller, Mark Ruffalo, Cynthia Erivo, Cate Blanchett, Cord Jefferson, Paul McCartney, Ron Howard and Taika Waititi — were submitting comments for the Trump administration's U.S. AI Action Plan. The letter specifically was penned in response to recent submissions to the Office of Science and Technology Policy from OpenAI and Google, which asserted that U.S. copyright law allows (or should allow) allow AI companies to train their system on copyrighted works without obtaining permission from (or compensating) rights holders. More from Variety 'Paddington in Peru' Writers Reunite for AI Animated Feature 'Critterz' From Vertigo Films, Native Foreign (EXCLUSIVE) TikTok Returns to Apple, Google App Stores AP Says Trump White House Blocked Reporter From Event Over News Org's Policy to Not Adopt 'Gulf of America' Name 'We firmly believe that America's global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries,' the letter says in part. The letter claims that '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 multibillion-dollar corporate valuations.' The letter's signatories include: Ben Stiller, Mark Ruffalo, Guillermo del Toro, Natasha Lyonne, Paul McCartney, Cynthia Erivo, Cate Blanchett, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Cord Jefferson, Bette Midler, Cate Blanchett, Ava Duvernay, Paul Simon, Aubrey Plaza, Ángel Manuel Soto, Ron Howard, Taika Waititi, Ayo Edebiri, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lily Gladstone, Sam Mendes, Brit Marling, Janelle Monáe, Bryn Mooser, Rian Johnson, Paul Giamatti, Maggie Gylenhall, Alfonso Cuaron, Olivia Wilde, Judd Apatow, Kim Gordon, Chris Rock and Michaela Coel. The letter says Google and OpenAI 'are arguing for 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.' OpenAI alleged in its OSTP submission (at this link) that the U.S. copyright code's fair use doctrine 'promotes AI development' and the company proposed that the U.S. 'take steps to ensure that our copyright system continues to support American AI leadership and American economic and national security,' including 'working to prevent less innovative countries from imposing their legal regimes on American AI firms and slowing our rate of progress.' Google, in its submission (at this link), advocated for 'balanced copyright rules, such as fair use and text-and-data mining exceptions,' which the company said has 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.' Here is the full text of the letter from the Hollywood signatories: Hello Friends & Strangers. As you may be aware there has recently been a recommendation by OpenAI & Google to the current US Administration that is gaining alarming traction to remove all legal protections & existing guardrails surrounding copyright law protections for the training of Artificial Intelligence. This rewriting of established law in favor of so-called 'Fair Use' was in need of an initial response by 11:59 PM ET Saturday, so we have submitted an initial letter with the signatories we had at that time. We are now continuing to accept signatures for an amendment to our initial statement. Please feel free to forward this to anyone you think may be invested in the ethical maintenance of their intellectual property. You can add your name and whatever guilds or unions or description of self you feel appropriate, but please do not edit the letter itself. Thank you so much for kicking this out wide on a Saturday Night! Hollywood's Response to the Administration's Artificial Intelligence Action Plan and necessity that copyright law be upheld. We, the members of America's entertainment industry — representing an intersection of cinematographers, directors, producers, actors, writers, studios, production companies, musicians, composers, costume, sound & production designers, editors, gaffers, union and Academy Members, and other industrious, creative content professionals – submit this unified statement in response to the Administration's request for input on the AI Action Plan. We firmly believe that America's global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries. 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. Make no mistake: this issue goes well beyond the entertainment industry, as the right to train AI on all copyright-protected content impacts all of America's knowledge industries. 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. These professions are the core of how we discover, learn, and share knowledge as a society and as a nation. This issue is not just about AI leadership or about economics and individual rights, but about America's continued leadership in creating and owning valuable intellectual property in every field. It is clear that Google (valued at $2Tn) and OpenAI (valued at over $157Bn) are arguing for 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. 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. 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. America didn't become a global cultural powerhouse by accident. Our success stems directly from our fundamental respect for IP and copyright that rewards creative risk-taking by talented and hardworking Americans from every state and territory. 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. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More What's Coming to Disney+ in March 2025
