The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) has become the first Hollywood awards group to come out strongly against generative AI, blocking any project that uses the technology from consideration for its Golden Reel Awards.
“We support and prize technological advances that assist artists in their creations,” the group said on Thursday. “However, standards for the legal and ethical use of Generative A.I. have yet to be established and are far from being accepted broadly. What we choose to promote as award-worthy points to how much we value the human endeavour of artistic creation.”
MPSE continued: “Because of these concerns and our organisation’s mission to uphold and celebrate the creative human endeavour of sound and music editorial, sound design, and foley artistry, the MPSE will not be accepting projects for awards consideration where Generative A.I. is used to create elements for the final soundtrack.”
Golden Reel Award qualification rules are being updated. Last year’s feature film winners included Dune: Part Two (pictured).
The group’s president David Barber said the time to establish guardrails had already passed, adding: “The dam of A.I. has broken, and the waters are upon us. Choosing what we embrace as award-worthy filmmaking is a way of diverting those waters while we grapple with this exponential change.”
MPSE said however it is open to future technological support for its members’ work.
On Wednesday, Disney and Universal became the first studios to sue an AI company, Midjourney, over copyright infringement.