At an artificial intelligence summit in Paris last month, Vice President JD Vance slammed the European Union for what he called “excessive regulation” around the advancement of artificial intelligence, adding that such regulation will hinder innovation in the tech industry.
His comments were music to the ears of tech giants like Google and OpenAI, who last week submitted formal proposals to the White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) regarding the U.S. AI Action Plan. Their suggestions, essentially: Regulation? Who needs that?
Specifically, both companies included sections in their proposals regarding copyright and argued that, when it comes to copyright laws, the government should apply the fair use doctrine to AI. OpenAI said doing so is “not only a matter of American competitiveness — it’s a matter of national security.” Google said it’s “essential for accelerating AI in science.”
The translation of Google and OpenAI’s grave proclamations is that AI companies should have exceptions around copyright laws, which would enable them to train AI models without seeking permission or compensating rights holders. That concept hasn’t sit well with Hollywood, which depends on its copyrights and protecting its intellectual property.
In an open letter that was sent to the White House OSTP, over 400 directors, writers, actors, musicians, below-the-line professionals, and more signed their own proposal asking that copyright law be upheld when it comes to AI and that tech companies not be granted exceptions.
“We firmly believe that America’s global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries,” the letter reads. “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.”
Among the signatories to the letter are: Guillermo del Toro, Natasha Lyonne, Paul McCartney, Cynthia Erivo, Cate Blanchett, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Cord Jefferson, Bette Midler, Cate Blanchett, Ava Duvernay, Paul Simon, Ben Stiller, 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, Mark Ruffalo, Michaela Coel, and many more.
Google claims this is a matter of advancing scientific research, that its models are used to quickly summarize scientific literature and help scientists reach hypotheses quicker. The way OpenAI spins it, its models “are trained to not replicate works for consumption by the public,” and it already aligns with existing ideas around fair use and doesn’t infringe on rights holders (The New York Times is just one of the companies currently suing AI for copyright infringement, or just ask Scarlett Johansson about all that).
They argue that though America already leads in AI research, if tech companies aren’t given “unfettered access,” “the race for AI is effectively over. America loses, as does the success of democratic AI.” That’s a line that should get the attention of Vance and the Trump administration. (Here’s the full text of Google and OpenAI’s proposals.)
Hollywood, of course, has already made a point of addressing the compensation and permission issue around AI during its labor negotiations back in 2023, requiring that studios disclose the use of AI or whether the work of actors, writers, or directors has been used to train AI models. But if a studio leans on using a model created by a company like OpenAI — like in the case of Lionsgate’s partnership with Runway — then all bets are off.
One of the lead signatories of the letter, Natasha Lyonne along with Bryn Mooser, together co-founded the AI studio Asteria and recently launched their own AI model called Marey that they say is the first “clean” model not trained on any existing copyrighted material. As IndieWire recently reported, many other emerging AI companies opt to not build their own AI models but instead used either closed source or open source models.
Check out the full text of the open letter and its signatories here.
