Writers Guilds and a Blanchett-Led Coalition Press Court on OpenAI

Hollywood's creative unions and a coalition led by Cate Blanchett have filed separate briefs urging a federal judge in New York to reject a categorical fair-use defense for AI training in the copyright litigation against OpenAI and Microsoft, which includes The New York Times' lawsuit.

On Oct. 29, WGA West, WGA East, SAG-AFTRA and the American Federation of Musicians submitted a 34-page proposed amicus brief before Judge Sidney H. Stein in the Southern District of New York, describing the dispute as "no more than an ordinary copyright case." The unions argue that a blanket ruling would hollow out AI protections they bargained for, including the notice-and-bargaining rights the WGA and SAG-AFTRA won in their 2026 contracts.

On Friday, Blanchett's Human Consent Foundation filed a 31-page brief co-signed by CAA, the Music Artists Coalition, the National Association of Voice Actors and the Creators Coalition on Artificial Intelligence, TheWrap reported. It disputes the defendants' argument that licensing creative works for training is cost-prohibitive, pointing to collective licensing systems such as BMI. "Consent isn't a barrier to creativity, it is the foundation of it," Blanchett said. OpenAI and Microsoft did not respond to TheWrap's request for comment.