GenAI grabs Hollywood by the golden globes - it may get a slap

Much as publishing has suffered at the hands of GenAI, now it's the turn of the motion picture industry. Will they have more luck than us?

by Rob Corbidge

Published: 15:10, 02 October 2025

Have you explained to any non-industry friends about the situation publishing finds itself regarding AI training and copyright? I certainly have, and while their ears might have taken on a sympathetic bent, our industry's tribulations hardly spark the kind of conversational kindling that, for example, the latest example of AI thievery promises to do.

Even when those of us with the loudest voices and most influence protest at content copyright violations, it's still a marginal game in the wider world, the one in which the court of public opinion is largely deaf, and so real courtrooms end up being where the battle must be fought.

Our chorus of commercial angst is soon to be joined by some much louder voices though, as this week it OpenAI made clear that it will by default use copyrighted material from the motion picture industry in its new version of the Sora video generator app unless, to quote the WSJ, "copyright holders opt out of having their work appear". Individual opt-outs, to boot. Sound familiar?

Notices to studios and talent agencies where sent out last weekend by OpenAI, stating its intention that their work is going to be used and, as one observer put it, "Maybe [they plan to] ask for forgiveness instead of asking for permission'." Looks like OpenAI take the view that fair use = fair game, and a wonderfully glib quote from OpenAI's VP of Media Partnerships Varun Shetty, explained: "If there are folks that do not want to be part of this ecosystem, we can work with them."

Folks. Ecosystem. 

"Hey, I've just burgled your house, and your whole street - let's work together! Let me tell you about our new property redistribution ecosystem..." 

Moreover, OpenAI doesn't plan to accept a "blanket opt-out across all of an artist or studio’s work" and will instead require notification of individual violations.

"Our general approach has been to treat likeness and copyright distinctly," Jason Kwon, Chief Strategy Officer of OpenAI, told the WSJ. Ah, that's OK then.

It's bold, I'll give them that and from OpenAI's perspective, it needs to be. Burning other people's cash even quicker than it can steal other people's content or likeness, it's well known that the company desires - needs - its own social media platform to join the true tech players and start making back that coin. 

Sora looks to be the three-wheeler upon which they are placing such hope, and thus needs gimmicks, recognisable faces, and popular imagery high-quality training data like Homer Simpson's "D'oh!" or Arnie's "Hasta la vista, baby" or whatever they have convinced themselves this week is critical to national security.

Well, we'll see. Guardrails are apparently in place to prevent actual likenesses being used, yet as we know, such guardrails are breachable, and AI systems often do things with their data that the system's creators do not expect. One only needs look at their own platforms to see that.

There is of course a happy land for all, where the companies making GenAI systems can co-operate with those providing the content on which they operate, and with each other, to the financial benefit of all. One could even say that would be good for national security by raising the waters for all and ensuring both technological and cultural power is retained, the so-called Sid Meier Solution, but we're not the big thinkers here. Anyway, this OpenAI move suggests we're still a long way from it.

This isn't the only flicker in the footage for the film industry this week. The manifestation of Tilly Norwood, an AI-gen "actor" (will we be losing those quote marks in a year or two?) prompted actors and performers union SAG-AFTRA to voice its alarm about the future of the creative arts and its 160,000 members.

Norwood, created by Dutch actor-producer Eline Van der Velden, appeared in a 20-second video short shown to film industry insiders at a conference in Zurich, and it's fair to say news that "talent agencies were interested" caused quite the stir. 

It was not wholly clear if their interest was around signing-up, err... Ms Norwood, or instead to interrogate the makers about who she is based on to unleash their lawyers.

Neither is the claim from Van der Velden that, "Talent agents were starting to tell her: "'We need to do something with you guys'." Many are probably thinking exactly that!

SAG-AFTRA issued a statement about "her" and GenAI in general: "Creativity is, and should remain, human-centered. The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics.

"To be clear, “Tilly Norwood” is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers - without permission or compensation. It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience."

I guess we're going to see about that. It seems likely to me that while the ability to create full-length features using GenAI probably isn't that far off, such creations may well sit in a category of their own - such as animated or fan movies already do. All such speculation is still sailing wide of the main point though: GenAI creations cannot exist without the work of others, and that work belongs to them.

It's not always easy to come down on the side of studios given some of the sector's checkered past of exploiting artists and IP, yet they are the wronged party here and they do love a lawsuit.

Moreover, its public presence and that of its stars dwarfs that of the publishing industry, and where we have faced much public "meh" on the plight of our work being gobbled up by AI, they may give more of a WTF when a Zendaya or a Chalamet spells it out with a personal tone.

Ironically, the way AI still hallucinates the biggest threat for now may be to the novelty T-shirt industry, but that won't stop the lawyers.

In true theatrical tradition, bring the popcorn.