Litigation Partner and author of Copyright Lately, Aaron Moss, provided insights to Bloomberg Law regarding the legal considerations and potential risks associated with the use of AI in creative processes within the entertainment industry.

Excerpts:

The guidance “puts the onus on studios to really be careful” about how they use AI, said Aaron J. Moss, a copyright and entertainment attorney at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP.

“You’re going to have these operating procedures that are going to be tweaked as a result of AI, to the extent that anybody is going to be using it,” Moss said. “Studios need to be disclaiming use of AI material that is more than de minimis. To the extent they don’t disclaim it, they run the risk later on if there’s a lawsuit.”

There are existing processes to track contributions, including what is and isn’t protectable by the movie’s copyright—such as source material and historical facts—and those processes will now also have to track AI, said Moss, who he’s had clients use AI for set decorations. That makes tracking AI in the “chain of title”—including AI material given to or created by writers—critical, Moss said.

Studios should track any AI use that’s “more than de minimis” or risk a litigant invalidating the copyright registration—under a standard that is currently unclear, Moss said.

“It does remain to be seen how much detail is going to be given to the writers and how much detail is going to be kept,” Moss said.

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• Bloomberg Law