Actors and scripts made with AI will not be eligible for the Oscars

The organization responsible for the most prestigious film awards has updated its regulations to shield human authorship facing the advancement of technology. These new guidelines, recently published, seek to define precisely what elements of an audiovisual production can be considered for a nomination, establishing a clear barrier to the growing use of automatic generation tools in the industry.

According to the new rules, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has determined that only interpretations “credited in the film’s legal credits and demonstrably made by people with their consent“. This measure ensures that digital representations or synthetic recreations cannot displace the work of physical performers in performance categories.

Regarding the narrative, the institution has specified that the scripts must be “written by people” to qualify for the Oscars. In addition, the Academy has reserved the right to require additional documentation about the production processes and “human authorship” in any film that raises doubts about the origin of its content.

The Academy Awards get serious: only human effort will win

These regulatory adjustments arise in a climate of high tension after the actors and screenwriters strikes of 2023where the regulation of artificial intelligence was a critical point of friction. The debate has intensified with the emergence of projects such as independent films that use AI-generated versions of established actors or the emergence of virtual figures that monopolize media attention.

The trend of limiting the use of these tools also extends outside of Hollywood, where publishers novels have been removed for the use of generative software and various literary associations are disqualifying works that are not purely human. New video models and the capacity for image synthesis have led filmmakers and creators to demand legal protections that guarantee the relevance of human talent in the future of the arts.