Nearly 450 members of Hollywood have penned a letter urging the White House to rethink their planned policies over AI.

We knew that AI would continue to be a prominent entity in Hollywood even after the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes settled in 2023. Now, the industry is taking their issue to the White House, which just last month issued comment on the Artificial Intelligence Action Plan, which aims to “define priority policy actions to enhance America’s position as an AI powerhouse.” As a result, nearly 450 people within the entertainment industry are taking aim with a 12-page letter that calls out the administration for the move.

This week, Hollywood elite issued a 12-page letter to the White House over their AI policies, particularly as they relate to copyrighted material. Essentially, the Artificial Intelligence Action Plan would permit companies to use said material to enhance and advance AI, thus robbing rights owners of any compensation and forgoing copyright rules as we know them.

The joint letter reads, in part: “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.”

Those within Hollywood who have signed the letter regarding AI include Guillermo del Toro (a consistently vocal opponent of AI), Paul McCartney, Alfonso Cuarón, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Phil Lord & Chris Miller, Ayo Edebiri, Ben Stiller, Mark Ruffalo, Nick Kroll, Judd Apatow, Chelsea Handler, Griffin Dunne, Zelda Williams (who has long been trying to stop AI recreations of late father Robin), and literally hundreds of others. Considering the general relationship between Hollywood and the current president, it’s hard to imagine their call to action having a genuine impact on the White House’s policy over AI. And it might only be a matter of minutes before a social media breakdown…

The letter continues, “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.”

Do you see hope for the Hollywood push to limit what the White House has planned over AI?