The Tao of AI

When Steven Spielberg brought Stanley Kubrick’s unfilmed screenplay “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” to the screen in — of all ironic years — 2001, most of us had never before heard the acronym. In science fiction parlance it represented an ominous harbinger of things to come — the prospect of a “Terminator”-level tipping point where humanity finds itself at risk of being replaced by its own artificial creations.

Twenty-three years later, “A.I.” is no longer science fiction or theory. The great android replacement theory has failed to materialize — but our incarnation of A.I. is widely deemed a threat just the same. So much so that for a solid year it has been the single greatest stumbling block in film industry labor negotiations — the central issue during last year’s SAG and WGA strikes, and a major factor in the ongoing negotiations with both Teamsters and animators. In a shockingly short period of time, A.I. has become the most ubiquitous — and the most misunderstood — acronym in the world.

Precisely what A.I. can and cannot do, and what it may and may not end up doing, remains a topic of considerable debate. A.I. integrations are now routinely used to “clean up” video, audio and still images, while millions of others routinely use ChatGPT to reduce their research and writing workload. At the same time, A.I.’s foibles have been the stuff of headlines, from the fiasco of the first “Megalopolis” movie trailer to some profoundly embarrassing incidents involving Google’s Gemini and Adobe’s Firefly.

Ultimately, the real concern for creatives pertains to the “likeness rights” and the use of copyrighted intellectual property which may be used to “train” the machine learning algorithms which constitute the basic building blocks of all A.I.

To help separate fact from fiction from speculation, I went to the most authoritative source I know — veteran attorney Mark Lee of law firm Rimon. An expert in the field of intellectual property specifically as pertains to the entertainment industry, Mark’s work on behalf of artists, authors and athletes and the protection of their work and likenesses has been far-reaching. In addition to contributing to “right of publicity” statutes in California, Ohio and Pennsylvania, he is the author of “Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law,” which is regularly updated and may be purchased at Thomson Reuters.

Given the complexity and the seriousness of the subject, and the fact that A.I. will increasingly become a part of all our daily lives for the foreseeable future, I proposed a two-tiered approach to the subject — an exchange of questions and answers in email — which are furnished below — followed by a free-flowing podcast conversation which you can wa