Celebrities including Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are backing a campaign condemning tech companies for training generative AI tools on copyrighted works without express permission. The “Stealing Isn’t Innovation” initiative by the Human Artistry Campaign, which officially launches Thursday, aims to protest what it describes as the mass theft of human-created works to produce tools that could potentially compete with actual creators.
On Thursday, the Human Artistry Campaign debuted its awareness campaign, gathering the support of more than 700 creators. The New York Times published an advertisement for the initiative, amplifying its message.
“Big Tech is trying to change the law so they can keep stealing American artistry to build their AI businesses – without authorization and without paying the people who did the work. That is wrong; it’s un-American, and it’s theft on a grand scale,” one of the campaign’s messages asserts. The campaign encourages creators to join in solidarity against these practices.
In addition to Johansson, Blanchett, and Gordon-Levitt, notable figures such as David Lowery, Fran Drescher, Jennifer Hudson, Kristen Bell, Michele Mulroney, Olivia Munn, Sean Astin, and Vince Gilligan have signed on as supporters. Musicians including Cyndi Lauper, LeAnn Rimes, Martina McBride, and Questlove, as well as bands like MGMT, OneRepublic, R.E.M., and OK Go, have also expressed their backing. Authors such as George Saunders, Jodi Picoult, Roxane Gay, and Jonathan Franzen have joined the campaign as well.
The Human Artistry Campaign comprises a coalition of unions representing creators, artists’ rights groups, and trade associations, including the Writers Guild of America, Recording Industry Association of America, The NewsGuild, the NFL Players Association, and SAG-AFTRA.
The organization advocates for tech companies to license works and allow creators the option to exclude their projects from generative AI training.
“Real innovation comes from the human motivation to change our lives. It moves opportunity forward while driving economic growth and creating jobs,” stated Dr. Moiya McTier, a senior advisor for the Human Artistry Campaign. “But AI companies are endangering artists’ careers while exploiting their practiced craft, using human art and other creative works without authorization to amass billions in corporate earnings.”
McTier further emphasized, “America wins when technology companies and creators collaborate to make the highest quality consumer and enterprise digital products and tools. Solutions like licensing offer a path to a mutually beneficial outcome for all.”
So far, only a handful of Hollywood companies have initiated sanctioned licensing for generative AI tools, with Disney being one of the most notable cases. In December, Disney entered a three-year deal with OpenAI to incorporate some of its iconic characters into the video-generation tool, Sora.
However, the AI company faced scrutiny in Hollywood earlier in the year when Sora 2.0 was reported to have generated characters from popular franchises such as Bob’s Burgers, Pokémon, Grand Theft Auto, and SpongeBob SquarePants. Initially, the company asserted that rights holders could reach out to opt-out of inclusion in the video generator; however, it later retracted that stance.
The ongoing discourse around copyright and AI training reflects broader concerns about the future of creativity and ownership in the digital age. As the technology landscape evolves, the need for collaboration between technology companies and creators has never been more pressing.
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