Juan Delgado of Day Pitney: "Balancing technological innovation with the protection of creative workers is a challenge."

Hollywood’s AI debate is now being negotiated in contracts, tested in courtrooms, and built into the future of production.

In a PRODU article, Juan Delgado, co-chair of Day Pitney’s Sports, Media, and Entertainment Practice, said the entertainment industry is facing one of its most consequential challenges: how to embrace AI without leaving creative workers unprotected. Following the disruptive 2023 Hollywood labor negotiations, unions, studios, actors, writers, and producers are now working through the difficult question of where innovation ends and rights protection begins.

Delgado spoke on new AI-related protections in union agreements, growing concerns around the use of actors’ name, image, and likeness, and pending legislation such as the No Fakes Act as signs that a new legal framework is taking shape. He also highlights emerging industry efforts, including a proposed “traffic light” system that would allow creatives to signal how their likeness can be used by AI systems.

Delgado notes that companies must carefully examine the source material behind AI-generated work, since copyright ownership, licenses, permissions, and NIL rights remain major areas of legal risk.

Read more here.