The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) has formed a working group to guide its efforts on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the screen sector.
DGC National president Warren P. Sonoda shared the working group’s key principles in a letter to members on Friday (July 14). The group’s full mission statement was made public on Monday (July 17).
The AI Working Group was formed at the DGC’s national executive board meeting in April, according to the letter. Sonoda wrote that the group will “help guide and structure our efforts in the global arena.”
The guild is currently in the process of identifying members to serve on the group, a spokesperson for DGC told Playback Daily. It also plans to hold discussions about the issue.
The working group will serve as a guide in the guild’s efforts to defend the work of its members, support all DGC job categories — including the use of AI in combination with other technologies, like virtual production — protect rights and intellectual property as defined by Canadian copyright law, and demand ethical use and transparency.
“Under Canadian law, all copyrighted works must have an author (or a set of co-authors) and an author must be a human being. The guild must defend this as an absolute, fundamental principle,” said the mission statement.
It will also inform the guild’s efforts in seeking out training and professional development opportunities for its members that align with the evolving nature of the industry, and in bargaining and policy making.
“… as a labour organization representing over 6,000 human creators, craftspeople, logistical and technical artists in the screen-based industry, the guild’s core mission is clear: In every undertaking, we will advocate and defend the economic interests of our members and their creative and workplace rights, including the legal and tangible reality that original works are created by people, not algorithms,” said the statement.
The potential impact of AI on the screen sector has been a widespread talking point in the strike action by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The WGA’s focus has been on regulating to use of AI in scriptwriting, while SAG-AFTRA has voiced concerns the tech could be deployed to use and own an actor’s likeness.
In June, the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) published a letter addressed to Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez and Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne, expressing similar concern. In the letter, the WGC called for the protection of human creators rights under the Copyright Act and also proposed that all cultural funds be reserved for human creators.
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