At a few days before the 51st César Awards, 4,000 actors, actresses, and filmmakers denounce the “widespread plundering” by artificial intelligence tools that replicate their voice or image in a Tribune published on Sunday.
“We are facing a profound transformation of our profession since the arrival of artificial intelligence. This tool, extraordinarily valuable for some sectors, is also a voracious hydra for us artists,” wrote the signatories in a text published on Le Parisien’s website and transmitted to AFP by Adami, the collective management organization of artists’ rights interpreters, behind this initiative.
The signatories include actors Swann Arlaud, Gérard Jugnot, Franck Dubosc, and José Garcia, as well as actresses Léa Drucker, Elodie Bouchez, and Karine Viard.
“The unauthorized voice cloning of actresses and actors is becoming legion,” express the actors and actresses, estimating that “not a week goes by without an artist sounding the alarm over the brutal competition that AI imposes on their work.”
According to them, “sometimes hundreds of artists, less established, who often cannot afford to refuse a contract, surrender their rights to AI, despite the risks to their image and future.”
“This widespread plundering is not a fantasy, it is here and now. It is unbearable and it is happening before our eyes,” they lament.
The Tribune calls for the creation of a “legal framework” so that “AI can coexist with the work of artists and respect copyright and neighboring rights.”
For several months, initiatives have been growing within the profession in the face of the threat AI poses to the entire industry (studios, actors…) and the flood of content that almost perfectly reproduces artists and their voices.
At the end of January, eight French dubbing actors sent formal notices to two American companies that cloned their voices without their consent.
Recently, actors took to the streets in Paris and launched a collective called “Hands off my VF” demanding “dubbing done by humans for humans.”
This debate goes far beyond France: last week, the Chinese software Seedance 2.0 was accused by major Hollywood studios of “massive” copyright violations after the dissemination, among other things, of a viral video created by AI showing a fight between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.
