Fox Entertainment joins Disney, The New York Times, Adobe, and other members of the Alliance for Responsible Innovation in Arts and Media (ARIAM) to become the latest entertainment company to advocate for AI guardrails as many look to navigate the impact of technology on their businesses.
“Fox is excited about the potential of AI to support human creativity and deliver great entertainment to audiences around the world,” Jennifer Jones, Fox’s senior vice president of business and legal affairs, said in a statement to Variety. “We believe responsible AI can unlock the next generation of storytelling and creative innovation, and we are proud to support ARIAM in advancing this important mission.”
ARIAM members include Condé Nast, the Financial Times, ITV, Advance, the BBC, Cambridge University Press & Assessment, and British publishers Leach and Wiley. The coalition was founded by Victoria Furniss, CEO of consulting firm Bardella Group. Since the Coalition’s launch, she has met with members of the European Parliament, weighed in on Australia’s efforts to rein in AI data centers and protect rights holders’ copyrighted works, and begun arranging meetings with the Cabinet of new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham to position the Coalition as a thought leader in tackling AI regulation.
“Honestly, I don’t think the timing could have been better in terms of launching our company,” said Furniss, a former Netflix and Warner Bros. executive. “There’s so much going on in this space. Something happened in Australia as well and we were able to comment on that and make sure our name is there. So the last four weeks, in short, have been all about making sure ARIAM is a top priority for those groups.”
Furniss said Fox’s participation in the coalition shows the company is willing to work on AI, but also recognizes the need to do so responsibly. Fox’s recent efforts in this space include equity investments in microseries startup Holywater and AI-driven advertising platform Fox AdStudio earlier this year.
“Companies must take the right actions to mitigate the damage that could result from this,” Furniss said. “You all know the bad side of AI. So I think joining the coalition will send a message to the market that Fox is serious about that issue. It also just adds a tremendous breadth and depth of experience to the group in determining what this actually means. So we’re pleased to welcome them.”
Furniss said the coalition is in talks with other potential new members, including those in the gaming and sports industries, and is also considering other issues that fall within the group’s purview, such as last month’s protest by the Young Performers Agents Association against “major studios” that allegedly required child voice actors to sign their voices to use AI. The studio is Hasbro, which reportedly instilled the habit in the children’s show Peppa Pig, according to Deadline.
“This is more of an adjacent issue, but still, the idea is that generative AI can be used for good, not bad,” she said. “Exploiting children would be of great concern to many of our members, especially Disney. So I don’t have an opinion on that particular news, but I think it’s something that’s in the future. If that becomes a trend, we’ll probably want to get involved.”
