In a detailed amicus brief filed this week, as reported by Deadline, the unions laid out their case against OpenAI. They argue that the tech giant is "appropriating the work of middle- and working-class people to develop their technology" by using third-party content to train its large language models without proper compensation or permission. This, they contend, represents a potentially massive transfer of value from individual artists and writers to corporations.

The brief emphasizes that the current dispute, despite its cutting-edge technological context, "ultimately, this AI training dispute is ‘no more than an ordinary copyright case’ and should be treated as such." The unions are advocating for fair use to remain a case-by-case determination rather than a blanket exemption, which they believe is crucial for protecting human workers from exploitation.

This legal intervention is directly tied to a consolidated copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI, brought by a consortium of news outlets including The New York Times, and a host of acclaimed writers. High-profile plaintiffs include literary giants like George R.R. Martin, John Grisham, and Jonathan Franzen, alongside comedians such as Sarah Silverman and organizations like the Authors Guild.

The issue of Artificial Intelligence and its impact on creative labor was a cornerstone of the historic 2023 Hollywood strikes. Both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA fought tirelessly to secure protections, ultimately negotiating agreements that included notice-and-bargaining rights for the use of covered work to train commercial generative AI systems. The unions' brief powerfully asserts that a ruling granting categorical fair use for AI training would effectively "render moot the terms the unions and the industry agreed to at the bargaining table." Such an outcome, they warn, would not only harm copyright owners but, more importantly, "the people who create the work."

By uniting their voices, SAG-AFTRA, the WGA, and the AFM are sending a clear message: the future of creative work depends on ensuring that AI development respects intellectual property and fairly compensates the human talent whose work fuels these advanced technologies.