Over 400 Hollywood figures urge Trump not to allow AI companies to use copyrighted works

Ben Stiller, Mark Ruffalo and more than 400 Hollywood representatives are urging Trump not to allow AI companies to "exploit" copyrighted works, Variety reports.

More than 400 Hollywood creative leaders have signed an open letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, urging the administration not to repeal copyright protections at the request of artificial intelligence companies.

Signatories include filmmakers, writers, actors, musicians and others, including Ben Stiller, Mark Ruffalo, Cynthia Erivo, Cate Blanchett, Cord Jefferson, Paul McCartney, Ron Howard and Taika Waititi.

The letter was written in response to recent proposals by OpenAI and Google to the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which stated that US copyright law allows (or should allow) artificial intelligence companies to train their systems on copyrighted works without permission from the rights holders or compensation.

"We firmly believe that America’s global AI leadership must not come at the expense of our essential creative industries," the letter says.

The signatories argue that "AI companies are asking to undermine this economic and cultural strength by weakening copyright protections for the films, television series, artworks, writing, music and voices used to train AI models."

The letter also states that Google and OpenAI "are arguing for a special government exemption so they can freely exploit America’s creative and knowledge industries, despite their substantial revenues and available funds."