Hollywood Stars and Visual Artists Kickstart Anti-AI Campaign

Photographers and filmmakers have joined forces with well-known Hollywood stars in a new anti-AI campaign.

Stealing Isn’t Innovation is organized by the Human Artistry Campaign and is backed by hundreds of public figures across film, photography, music, television, and literature.

The coalition criticizes technology companies for training generative AI systems on copyrighted material without permission or compensation.

Visual artists like Salomon Ligthelm and organizations like the American Society of Media Photographers and Professional Photographers of America have joined forces with actors including Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt; musicians and bands such as R.E.M., Questlove, Cyndi Lauper, and One Republic; and industry figures including Vince Gilligan, Fran Drescher, and Kristen Bell. In total, the campaign lists more than 700 signatories. Messages from the campaign are appearing in full-page newspaper ads and across social media.

“Big Tech is trying to change the law so they can keep stealing American artistry to build their AI businesses — without authorization and without paying the people who did the work,” reads a campaign statement.

“That is wrong; it’s un-American, and it’s theft on a grand scale. The following creators all agree. Do you? If so, come join us.”

The Stealing Isn’t Innovation movement argues that AI companies have copied creative works at scale without consent or payment.

“Driven by fierce competition for leadership in the new GenAI technology, profit-hungry technology companies, including those among the richest in the world as well as private equity-backed ventures, have copied a massive amount of creative content online without authorization or payment to those who created it,” it says.

“This illegal intellectual property grab fosters an information ecosystem dominated by misinformation, deepfakes, and a vapid artificial avalanche of low-quality materials [‘AI slop’], risking AI model collapse and directly threatening America’s AI superiority and international competitiveness.”

At the policy level, federal officials and technology industry allies are pushing to influence how states regulate AI, while creators and rights holders continue to press for clearer protections. The campaign frames licensing and opt-out mechanisms as practical steps toward resolving disputes over AI training practices, while broader legal and regulatory questions remain unsettled.