THE STORY OF THE FILM SO FAR
Intrepid adventurer Joe returns from the AI jungle with a set of guidelines he follows to make it through its swampy paths. Only to find himself at the third act twist: what if people want to restrict the use of AI?
I am seeing more and more cases where people don’t want others to share work with them that was created with AI.
Sometimes these are people who run contests or festivals that accept submissions. Sometimes it’s people organizing art projects with multiple collaborators. Sometimes it’s organizations that accept proposals. All of them want to make sure that people aren’t using AI to create their submissions.
And while I am clearly comfortable with using AI, I will always respect these rules when playing in someone else’s sandbox. Their house, their rules, right?
But coming up with anti-AI rules is a lot more complicated than it sounds. Because there is no clear generally-accepted definition of AI.
But just asking people not to use AI is not sufficient. AI is more of a marketing term than a technical one. I know of at least three radically different technologies that all fall under the umbrella of “AI.” And that’s always been the case: the term “artificial intelligence” dates to well before anyone thought up ways of actually making it work.
As a result, there are a lot of tools that are labelled AI. And I suspect that most people would not object to some of them.
– A word processor’s grammar checker uses a form of AI. Some spell-checkers do as well.
– When the word processor or email client suggests the next word to use? That’s AI.
– Pretty much all modern tools for cleaning up audio use AI of some form or other.
– Video editing tools that key out objects from backgrounds, the kind of thing that used to take hours of work by an army of roto-brush artists, now use AI to produce the same effect with the click of a button.
If you have a rule that simply says, “No AI,” you’re restricting people from using any of these tools. You are in effect asking them to avoid using any modern word processor or film editing software.
Instead of a general rule like “No AI,” you need something that targets the kinds of AI that you object to. The best rules for this that I have seen come from the 48 Hour Film Project. With permission from Mark Ruppert, CEO of the 48 Hour Film Project, I repeat them here:
Use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in Your 48 Entry
Prohibited: Filmmakers are prohibited from using Generative AI to create their film—specifically, filmmakers are not permitted to use AI to create writing, scripts, music, images, special effects or footage. Definition: Generative AI is any system that produces new content (text, image, audio, video, code, etc.) in response to a prompt.
Permitted: Filmmakers are permitted to use Non-Generative AI tools (Assistive AI) that assist with technical post-production tasks, specifically noise reduction, audio cleanup, color correction, upscaling, stabilization, rotoscoping, and similar enhancement functions embedded in editing software. These tools may only improve human-created source material; they may not generate new content (i.e., prompt-based Generative AI features in all apps are prohibited).
Special Requirements
All use of AI must be:
– Legal in your jurisdiction
– Limited to material for which you hold all necessary rights
– Disclosed on your Wrap Up Form (list every AI tool used)
If AI or Effects are used in your film, you must complete the AI and Effects Disclosure Form.
When in doubt, don’t use it.
Here’s some of the things I like about these rules:
– They distinguish between acceptable uses of AI and ones that are not.
– They specifically target generative AI.
– They provide a simple definition of what they mean by generative AI, a definition that makes it easy for people to tell what is and is not acceptable.
– They have clear disclosure rules that provide a backstop for the definitions.
There are still some challenges. Sometimes in the crunch of a 48 Hour Flim Project you are grabbing free or cheap assets (sound or video effects) from the web (something allowed, as long as you have rights to use those assets), and you may not always know whether their creator used AI.
But these rules are probably about as good as can be done to cover a subject as complicated as AI. I’d love it if others who want to restrict its use had rules this clear.
Well done Mark and the others at the 48 Hour Film Project!
And so we reach the end of our journey, hopefully better equipped to deal with this new AI beast, whether we choose to tame it or restrict it from our domains. I hope you found this useful – and if you have your own thoughts or techniques, please share!
Mr. Dzikiewicz can be reached at joe@crimesoftheart.com
