Hollywood Stars and Cate Blanchett Back NYT in OpenAI Lawsuit, Demand Content Licensing

A significant legal development has unfolded in the New York Times' lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, as the Human Consent Foundation (HCF), a nonprofit backed by Cate Blanchett and dedicated to protecting individuals' likenesses from unauthorized AI scraping, has filed an amicus brief. This brief, joined by a consortium of Hollywood companies and creative organizations, directly challenges the tech giants' assertion that clearing rights for content used in AI training is cost-prohibitive and lacks a settled valuation method.

The 31-page brief, filed in the Southern District of New York, argues that such claims by OpenAI and Microsoft are “mischaracterizations” in the face of an active and well-established licensing market within the creative industries. The group emphasized that Hollywood already possesses a “proven infrastructure and workflows to clear rights for dispersed works at scale and cost-effectively.”

Alongside the Human Consent Foundation, which aims to protect individual likenesses from unauthorized AI scraping, other prominent entities that joined the brief include CAA, the Music Artists Coalition, the National Association of Voice Actors, Writer, Inc, and the Creative Coalition on AI. The filing also featured an appendix listing a diverse group of supportive Hollywood stars, such as Anne Hathaway, Emma Thompson, Dan Levy, Ron Howard, Madonna, and Olivia Wilde, underscoring the broad industry concern.

Nikki Hexum, co-founder and CEO of HCF, articulated the filing's purpose, stating it was intended to demonstrate to 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.” Hexum further elaborated on HCF’s objective: “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. 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.”

This amicus brief closely followed a similar filing made a day earlier by major Hollywood unions—SAG-AFTRA, the Writers Guild of America, and the American Federation of Musicians—against OpenAI and Microsoft. Their brief urged the court to reject the tech companies’ claims of fair use, arguing that such a precedent “would render moot the terms the unions and the industry agreed to at the bargaining table” and would “harm not just the copyright owners, but the people who create the work.” Both filings underscore a growing unified front from the creative industries advocating for robust protections and fair compensation in the evolving landscape of AI technology and content utilization.