The Academy of Motion Pictures is considering changing the rules for the Oscars, to make disclosure of the use of AI mandatory, as opposed to optional (which it is now).

The film that seems to have sparked the proposed change is Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist (2024). At Gizmodo, Lucas Ropek offers background:

The Brutalist is about the fictional László Tóth, a Jewish architect from Hungary who survives a Nazi concentration camp and, after the conclusion of WWII, travels to America, where he becomes entangled with the dealings of a wealthy business magnate. News of the movie’s use of AI tools came to the surface shortly after the film was nominated for ten Oscars. The controversy was spurred by an interview that the film’s editor, Dávid Jancsó, gave to RedShark News. Jancśo explained that the production had actually hired the Ukrainian software company Respeecher to make the film’s actors sound like they had authentic Hungarian accents. The film also apparently used AI to create some of the architectural blueprints that appear in the film.

“Oscars Consider New AI Disclosure Rules Over Controversies with The Brutalist, Other Films,”February 9, 2025

Ropek notes that AI has been “a conundrum” for Hollywood: Should it ban or adopt AI tools? OpenAI is, of course, marketing the tools to Hollywood. But Ropek thinks that audiences would prefer a ban: “Despite the slow creep of new forms of automation into the filmmaking process, there has been little evidence to suggest that what audiences want is more of it in their movies.”

But what does the AI DO?

Surely, a lot depends on what the AI actually does. For example, in The Irishman, (2019), de-aging was used to enable actors to play characters much younger than themselves: “In the run-up to today’s world premiere of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, speculation understandably focused on the extensive de-aging technology used to transform Robert De Niro (current age: 76), Al Pacino (current age: 79), Joe Pesci (current age: 76), and some other members of the cast into younger versions of themselves throughout the film.” (Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, Sept. 27, 2019)

That means audiences still see their old favorites. But it also means that young actors don’t get a crack at these roles. Similarly, making an established native English-speaking star sound as if English is a second language may deprive a gifted actor for whom English is a second language of a role. Over time, that sort of thing can lead to stagnation (model collapse for films?)

We will probably be hearing many more of these debates soon. Mandatory disclosure would at least allow them to be well-informed.