The Oscar gods embraced A.I. on Monday.
Sort of.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said in a statement that it had updated its plethora of rules for voting and campaigning. Going forward, for instance, members must now watch all nominated films in each category before they can vote in the final round. (How will that be policed? It won’t. Voters will need to confirm on ballots that they have watched each film, but they could still lie.)
But one update stood out: For the first time, the academy addressed the use of generative artificial intelligence, a technology sweeping into the film capital yet hugely divisive in the industry’s creative ranks.
A.I. and other digital tools “neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination,” the Oscar rules now state. The academy added, however, that the more a human played a role in a film’s creation, the better. (“The academy and each branch will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award.”)
The academy had been considering whether to change its submission process to make it mandatory that A.I. use be disclosed. But it decided not to go that far.
Simply acknowledging A.I.’s creep into moviemaking is a big deal for the academy. Unions for writers and actors made protections against the technology a prominent part of recent contract negotiations. A.I. was hotly debated in Hollywood and among fans in the lead-up to the Oscars in February, after it became known that “The Brutalist,” an immigrant epic nominated for 10 statuettes, used the technology to enhance Hungarian accents. Some people defended the filmmakers, while others decried the use of A.I. as unethical.
In the end, Adrien Brody won the Oscar for best actor for his performance in “The Brutalist.” The film also won Oscars for cinematography and score.
Other nominated films, including “Emilia Pérez” and “Dune: Part Two,” also used A.I. tools for enhancements.
Some influential filmmakers have started to embrace the technology — most notably James Cameron, who last fall joined the board of the start-up Stability A.I. But the debate rages on: Just last week, Demi Moore, a recent Oscar nominee for “The Substance,” apologized for using an A.I. app to transform her dog into a human in a photograph. After receiving blowback for the image, which she posted to Instagram, Ms. Moore deleted it.
“I did not realize by sharing this image,” she wrote in a replacement post, “it would be in such disrespect to the artists and creators of our world.”
The academy on Monday also strengthened its “public communications” policy, which includes social media, ordering that any person or company associated with an eligible film “may not disparage the techniques used in or subject matter of any motion picture.”
The next Oscars ceremony, to be hosted again by Conan O’Brien, will be held on March 15.
Brooks Barnes covers all things Hollywood. He joined The Times in 2007 and previously worked at The Wall Street Journal.
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