Summary:
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Producer Kathleen Kennedy and AFI dean Susan Ruskin have been leading discussions on AI in filmmaking since 2023.
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The group’s first public document, “Human Generative Workflows,” categorizes AI use and argues for copyright protection.
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Participants, including DGA AI Committee co-chair Jon Avnet and filmmaker Bryn Mooser, aim to establish industry standards for AI.
Producer Kathleen Kennedy and American Film Institute dean Susan Ruskin have been quietly convening Hollywood power players and Silicon Valley figures since 2023 to hash out AI’s role in filmmaking, The Ankler revealed Thursday.
The off-the-record meetings, which expanded to roughly 120 participants at an AFI event last weekend, produced the group’s first public document. Titled “Human Generative Workflows,” it argues Hollywood needs to stop treating all AI use as equivalent.
The framework splits AI use into three tiers: built-in editing tools like denoising and upscaling, artist-directed “Human Generative Workflows” where creators control generative models within traditional pipelines, and “Machine Generative” content produced by prompts alone. The first two categories, the group argues, should be copyrightable; the third likely isn’t under current U.S. Copyright Office guidance.
Participants aren’t named, but DGA AI Committee co-chair Jon Avnet and filmmaker Bryn Mooser spoke on record about the effort. The Ankler’s Richard Rushfield and editor-in-chief Janice Min attended the sessions under an off-the-record agreement.
The document stops short of addressing training data, licensing, or labor issues, calling those separate fights. It calls for the industry to adopt a shared vocabulary now, without waiting on regulation.
