Cate Blanchett-Backed Group and Collection of Hollywood Stars File Brief in New York Times-OpenAI Lawsuit: Hollywood Has ‘Proven Infrastructure’ to License Content

The Human Consent Foundation, the Cate Blanchett-backed nonprofit trying to protect the likenesses of individuals from unauthorized scraping by AI models, and a legion of Hollywood companies have filed an amicus brief in the New York Times‘ lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming the tech companies’ position that it could not reasonably clear the rights for content “mischaracterizations” in light of an active licensing market.

The group’s 31-page brief was filed in the Southern District of New York late Friday, and the group was joined by CAA, the Music Artists Coalition, the National Association of Voice Actors, Writer, Inc, and the Creative Coalition on AI. The brief featured an appendix with a suite of Hollywood stars supportive of the cause, including Anne Hathaway, Emma Thompson, Dan Levy, Ron Howard, Madonna, Olivia Wilde and more

“Defendants have argued that licensing creative works for AI training is cost-prohibitive,” the brief read. “Defendants also claim there is no settled means of valuing training data. The facts demonstrate otherwise. The creative industries already have in place a proven infrastructure and workflows to clear rights for dispersed works at scale and cost-effectively.”

In a statement, HCF co-founder and CEO Nikki Hexum said the filing was intended to show the court “how the creative industry actually works and acknowledge the solutions that have been built and are continuing to develop for this new digital era.”

“Our goal is to ensure that as the market for AI data licensing grows, the humans who create the value in that market are protected and have a meaningful choice,” Hexum added. “We are not starting from scratch. There is already a functioning market and infrastructure for licensing creative work. We just need to ensure that new AI technology respects those boundaries and choices, including the choice not to participate.”

The brief came a day after SAG-AFTRA, the Writers Guild of America and the American Federation of Musicians filed their own brief against OpenAI and Microsoft, urging the court that the tech companies’ claim that their actions constituted fair use “would render moot the terms the unions and the industry agreed to at the bargaining table.”

“It would harm not just the copyright owners, but the people who create the work,” their Thursday brief read.