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Summary
The rise of AI actors and scripts that are convincing enough for Oscar awards has rattled human talent, but the advance of this technology won’t be halted. We need a balance of co-creativity, but then, that’s an award-worthy challenge in itself.
As part of a substantive change in rules, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has emphasized that only acting “demonstrably performed by humans” and “human-authored” writings will qualify for Oscar awards. The rules have been updated to address cases like that of an AI-generated version of the deceased actor Val Kilmer vying for an award.
Note that AI usage in Oscar-nominated movies in 2024 and 2025 focused on augmentation—including voice cloning and enhancement and visual effects—rather than creation. For example, in The Brutalist, AI had enhanced actors’ Hungarian accents.
Moreover, the Academy didn’t ban the use of AI in films; it said that AI techniques applied outside of performing and writing “neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination.”
However, the use of AI technology has stirred up a debate, with some people issuing apocalyptic warnings that it might irreversibly damage the human experience.
One can revisit 2023, when German photographer Boris Eldagsen created a sensation by turning down the prestigious Sony World Photography Award because his prize-winning image was generated by using AI, as he admitted.
According to Eldagsen, he intended to check whether competitions were ready for AI-generated pictures. They were not, he said. “We, the photo world, need an open discussion,” he added. However, it seems like many issues associated with AI usage concern a broad spectrum of the creative industry.
Today, AI-generated writings are among the greatest worries. In December 2023, professor Shen Yang from Tsinghua University in China created news when he generated a 43,000-word Chinese novel in just three hours.
In 2024, through her novel Tokyo-to Dojo-to (Sympathy Tower Tokyo), author Rie Kudan won Japan’s most prestigious literary prize, even though she admitted that 5% of the novel—the dialogue of an “AI-built” character—was generated using an AI chatbot.
On other occasions, literary circles have shown resistance to AI. Two books by acclaimed authors Stephanie Johnson and Elizabeth Smither were eliminated from consideration for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Prize for Fiction in 2025 due to the use of AI for their cover designs. So, are we being over-careful? Interestingly, English author Sarah Hall’s book Helm came out in 2025 with a sticker explicitly stating that it was “human written.”
The Academy’s recent decision to block Oscar nominations for AI actors and writers might be considered a natural follow-up to the two Hollywood strikes of 2023. A few weeks after Eldagsen turned down the Sony World Photography Award, the American actors’ union, Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA), which represents 11,500 screenwriters, went on strike.
The use of AI by film and TV studios for writing scripts was a key reason for the writers’ strike, whereas AI and digital reproduction was the big concern for artists. These Hollywood strikes helped achieve some success against AI.
However, while many people appreciate the financial logic of how AI actors could reduce production costs by 90%, the worries of workers employed by the film industry persist.
Last September, Particle6, an AI creation company, launched Tilly Norwood, an ‘AI actor,’ at the Zurich Film Festival. Norwood appeared in a short film AI Commissioner, acted in Sydney Sweeney’s controversial Great Jeans commercial and starred in the music video Take the Lead. Norwood’s development is being challenged by real-life actors who risk being replaced by AI actors.
According to SAG-AFTRA, creativity must remain human-centred. There is also apprehension over the copyrights of writers and artists. “It creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry,” says SAG-AFTRA.
However, there’s no turning back time. “The age of synthetic actors isn’t ‘coming’—it’s here,” said Eline Van der Velden, the person behind the creation of Norwood. Although AI actors like Norwood or AI writers can’t be nominated for prizes, AI isn’t forbidden at the Oscars. That’s not feasible.
In this AI era, where almost everything is getting automated, wouldn’t protests against the use of such a technology be futile? Shouldn’t co-creation by humans and AI be the sensible way forward? Finding an appropriate balance will always be a feat, though. Almost award-worthy.
The author is professor of statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
English (US) ·