Ava DuVernay, Janelle Monáe, Chris Rock, and Cynthia Erivo are among over 400 Hollywood filmmakers, writers, actors, and musicians who signed an open letter urging President Trump’s administration not to roll back copyright protections at the request of AI companies.
The creatives penned the letter in response to recent submissions to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), during which Google and OpenAI asserted that U.S. copyright law should permit AI companies to train their systems on copyrighted works without needing permission or compensation from the rights holders, according to Variety.
“We firmly believe that America’s global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries,” the letter states. “America’s arts and entertainment industry supports over 2.3 million American jobs with over $229 billion 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.”
OpenAI claimed in its submission to the OSTP that the fair use doctrine in U.S. copyright law supports AI development. The company proposed several policy strategies focused on freedom, which it believes can help maintain America’s advantage in AI, stimulate economic growth, preserve American competitiveness, and protect national security.
Similarly, Google emphasized the need for balanced copyright rules, such as fair use and text and data mining exceptions, Variety reported. The company asserted that such regulations enable AI systems to learn from existing knowledge and publicly available data, facilitating scientific and social advancement.
“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,” the letter from the Hollywood execs added. “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.”
