Jennifer Hudson, The Roots Push Anti-AI Marketing campaign

[ad_1] by Jeroslyn JoVonn January 23, 2026

Hollywood’s prime creatives are rallying towards AI fashions that exploit copyrighted works.

Jennifer Hudson, The Roots, Jill Scott, and Jimmy Jam are amongst 800 Hollywood creatives in music, movie, and tv backing a marketing campaign towards using copyrighted works in AI fashions.

On Jan. 22, the Human Artistry Marketing campaign launched the “Stealing Isn’t Innovation” initiative, protesting tech corporations’ alleged mass use of human-created works to develop instruments that might compete with actual creatives, Deadline studies. Signatories embody actors Scarlett Johansson and Cate Blanchett, authors like Brad Meltzer, and musicians akin to Chaka Khan, CeCe Winans, and Yolanda Adams.

Led by the Human Artistry Marketing campaign—a coalition of Hollywood teams together with the RIAA, SAG-AFTRA, the Recording Academy, and the Administrators Guild of America, with the Movement Image Affiliation being notably absent—the initiative emphasizes the necessity to shield the artistic group. The marketing campaign accuses main tech corporations of utilizing American creators’ work to construct AI instruments with out permission or regard for copyright regulation.

“Massive Tech is attempting to vary the regulation to allow them to maintain stealing American artistry to construct their AI companies—with out authorization and with out paying the individuals who did the work. That's fallacious; it’s un-American, and it’s theft on a grand scale,” the marketing campaign states. “The next creators all agree. Do you? If that's the case, come be part of us.”

The marketing campaign claims that AI corporations’ use of copyrighted works to coach their fashions constitutes a “huge rip-off,” threatening U.S. jobs, financial development, and the worldwide “smooth energy” backed by the nation’s artistic industries. Fairly than utilizing works with out permission, the group needs tech corporations to license content material and permit creators to choose out of AI coaching.

“Actual innovation comes from the human motivation to vary our lives. It strikes alternative ahead whereas driving financial development and creating jobs,” Human Artistry Marketing campaign senior advisor Dr. Moiya McTier mentioned in an announcement. “However AI corporations are endangering artists’ careers whereas exploiting their practiced craft, utilizing human artwork and different artistic works with out authorization to amass billions in company earnings.”

Up to now, few Hollywood corporations have licensed content material for generative AI. The most important deal got here in December, when Disney signed a three-year settlement with OpenAI to carry a few of its iconic characters to the video-generation instrument Sora. Earlier, Sora 2.0 sparked controversy by producing characters from Bob’s Burgers, Pokémon, Grand Theft Auto, and SpongeBob SquarePants. The corporate initially mentioned rights holders may choose out, however reversed that stance days later.