Having established the positive impact that AI has had on the audiovisual field, we must now also consider the various concerns that have arisen over time among professionals in the industry. The advent of these technological innovations has not only brought opportunities but also introduced significant challenges and doubts.
One of the most critical issues concerns the impact AI is having on the job market. Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing traditional roles, significantly transforming how artistic and cultural work is produced, designed, and interpreted. Tasks once reserved exclusively for human creativity—such as writing, music composition, image creation, and visual concept development—are increasingly being carried out, either partially or entirely, by intelligent systems capable of learning, generating original content, and adapting to different contexts. This revolution is reshaping human labor and raising profound questions about the future of creativity, once considered a uniquely human domain.
A central issue raised by the introduction of AI—one that continues to generate heated debate—is copyright. Topics such as authorship, responsibility, and transparency in creative works are now under threat. National copyright law currently stipulates that a work can only be protected if it is the product of human intellect. But how should we deal with works generated with the help of AI? In such cases, it becomes essential to define the extent to which AI is involved in the creative process—whether it operates under the control and intent of a human author, or independently.
Another pressing concern is the fact that generative AI models are trained on copyrighted materials (such as films, TV series, texts, and music) without authorization or compensation for rights holders.
On this front, companies like OpenAI and Google are pushing to gain unrestricted access to this protected content, which they consider essential for training their AI models. This situation is triggering serious problems that could threaten the economic and cultural value of human creativity.
Following the release of the AI Action Plan by the White House—outlining the Trump administration’s vision of AI as a cornerstone of the economy, national security, and technological advancement—these tech giants submitted proposals seeking exemptions from current copyright regulations. In response, more than 400 figures from the entertainment world—including Paul McCartney, Ava DuVernay, Cate Blanchett, Taika Waititi, Alfonso Cuarón, and Lilly Wachowski—signed an open letter to the White House demanding stricter AI regulation and stronger copyright protections against the growing influence of AI corporations.
At the same time, these companies have been embroiled in numerous lawsuits for the unauthorized use of copyrighted material. For instance, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, while other media outlets and companies are attempting to negotiate direct licensing agreements.
Hollywood voice actors have turned to the LA Times to express their concern over the unauthorized use of their voices. One particularly telling case reported by the newspaper involved a voice actor who refused an offer from an AI company seeking to acquire recordings of his voice to train their algorithms.
This mobilization of Hollywood talent inevitably calls to mind the historic 2023 strike, when the two major unions—SAG-AFTRA (representing over 65,000 actors) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) (with 11,000 members)—placed the issue of artificial intelligence at the heart of their protest. A major concern was the studios’ intention to use AI to digitally replicate actors’ likenesses, effectively commodifying their personal and artistic identities. This has led—and continues to lead—actors to question how best to protect their image rights and freedom of expression.
Another critical issue surrounding this technological evolution is the potential of AI to spread disinformation in the audiovisual sector. This includes the creation of fake content—texts, images, deepfakes, and audio—that can easily be used to mislead the public.
All of this points to the irreversibility of a process that now demands the urgent development of ethical guidelines and effective regulations that can ensure fair protection for all those working in the industry.
However, it is worth reflecting on one more aspect: the pervasiveness of these new technologies may remind us of what happened between the 1970s and 1990s, when filmmakers would often call on craftsmen to add a “human touch” to counter the overly “clean” look of digital graphics. Today, the use of those same technologies runs the risk of standardizing creative output, leaving human intervention to serve only as a means of personalization—transferring one’s critical thinking and sensibility to the machine.
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