New anti-AI campaign backed by 700 figures including Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson
Over 700 artists, creators, actors, and writers in the film industry, including huge names like Cate Blanchett and Scarlett Johansson, have signed a new anti-AI campaign.
The campaign calls out technology companies that are exploiting copyrighted work without permission, for the gain of their own company. “Stealing our work is not innovation. It’s not progress. It’s theft – plain and simple,” the statement argues.
Signees, which also includes Josephn Gordon-Levitt, have stressed that the creative sector as a whole “supports millions of jobs, fuels economic growth and projects cultural power globally.” That pertinent ecosystem is being threatened by AI advances.
The statement continues, “America’s creative community is the envy of the world. But rather than respect and protect this valuable asset, some of the biggest tech companies – many backed by private equity and other funders — are using American creators’ work to build AI platforms without regard for copyright law.”
The letter clearly posits that “a better way exists.” It continues, “It is possible to have it all. We can have advanced, rapidly developing AI and ensure creators’ rights are respected.”
This open letter is similar to a signed statement sent to Donald Trump’s White House last year, which was also signed by Blanchett and Gordon-Levitt. That letter urged the Office of Science and Technology Policy not to roll back copyright protections as AI ran rampant across the industry.
Johansson, who was the voice actor in the 2013 AI-romance dystopian movie HER, has been vocal in her resistance to AI. In 2023, she took legal action against an AI app that used her name and likeness in an online advertisement without permission.
Similarly, Blanchett has spoken out about AI, recently at the Tronoto Film Festival in 2024, where she stated, “I think it’s really important to discuss any new technology. I think we should be very cautious with it, because innovation without imagination is a very, very dangerous thing.”
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