• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 17, 2025

Hundreds of Hollywood leaders across the entertainment industry signed an open letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) related to the U.S. AI Action Plan, initiated by the Trump administration. It will put policies in place to advance America's position as "an AI powerhouse."

The letter, signed by more than 400 members of America's entertainment industry, was in response to recent submissions from OpenAI and Google claiming that U.S. law should allow AI companies to train their programs on copyrighted works without the permission or compensation to copyright owners.

Asteria Film co-founders and signatories Bryn Mooser and Natasha Lyonne spearheaded sharing the letter with friends and colleagues during the weekend. The company has won awards for its content and documentary studio GC, and has used AI to create content.

The group represents cinematographers, directors, producers, actors, writers, studios, production companies, musicians, composers, costume, sound and production designers, editors, gaffers, union and Academy Members, and other industrious, creative content professionals.

Those who signed the letter believe the recommendations from Google and OpenAI, which the group believes has gained traction, aim to remove all legal protections and existing guardrails surrounding copyright law protections for the training of artificial intelligence (AI).

This rewriting of the law in favor of Fair Use required a response by mid-day Saturday, so the group submitted an initial letter with signatories who had signed at the time. The group, however, continued to accept signatures for an amendment to the group's initial statement.

"Balanced copyright rules, such as fair use and text-and-data mining exceptions, have been critical to enabling AI systems to learn from prior knowledge and publicly available data, unlocking scientific and social advances," Google wrote in its letter to OSTP. "These exceptions allow for the use of copyrighted, publicly available material for AI training without significantly impacting rightsholders and avoid highly unpredictable, imbalanced, and lengthy negotiations with data holders during model development or scientific experimentation. Balanced copyright laws that ensure access to publicly available scientific papers, for example, are essential for accelerating AI in science, particularly for applications that is through scientific literature for insights or new hypotheses."

The response from Hollywood actors, musicians and others stated that "America’s global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries."

Arts and entertainment supports more than 2.3 million American jobs with more than $229 billion in wages annually, while providing the foundation for American influence and soft power abroad.

AI companies, however, ask to change this economic and cultural strength by weakening copyright protections for movies, television series, artworks, writing, music, and voices used to train AI models. That can have a significant influence on the future of entertainment, the letter stated.

Those who signed the letter include 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 Gyllenhaal, Alfonso Cuaron, Olivia Wilde, Judd Apatow, Kim Gordon, Chris Rock, Mark Ruffalo, Michaela Coel, and many others.