Oscars Draw a Clear Line Between Humans and AI in Hollywood

According to the updated rules, only acting performances that were “demonstrably performed by humans” are eligible for the award, and screenplays must be “human-authored.” The Academy has called these changes “substantive,” meaning they significantly impact the awards’ rules.

Just a few years ago, such a statement might have sounded strange. But today, the situation in Hollywood is completely different. AI technology is used not only for special effects or video editing. Now we’re talking about fully recreating actors, generating scripts, and even creating entirely artificial characters.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has officially clarified

The following examples illustrate this well:

• the late Val Kilmer is set to be recreated using AI for a new leading role;
• actress and comedian Eline van der Velden stated that she created a completely fake AI actor to build a “global superstar”;
• during the Hollywood writers’ strike, one of the main points of contention was the use of AI to write scripts, and this can easily be verified using an AI detector.

Screenwriters were the first to speak openly about the risks of automating creative work. For many people in the film industry, this issue is not just about technology, but also about the future of the profession. If a studio can generate a script using prompts in a matter of seconds, why spend years honing one’s screenwriting skills?

That said, the Academy hasn’t banned AI in filmmaking entirely. And that’s an important point. If directors or studios use AI tools as an auxiliary tool, that in itself doesn’t affect their chances of getting an Oscar nomination. The Academy has explicitly stated: “tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination.”

AI Is Changing How Films and Actors Are Created

In fact, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is trying to draw a line between auxiliary technologies and the complete automation of creativity. And this is where it gets interesting, because modern cinema has been working with technology for a long time.

For example, CGI has been actively used since the 1990s. But most experts consider computer-generated imagery to be human work, since artists, animators, and VFX teams manually create and refine scenes. AI systems work differently. Their main goal is to automate the process through simple text prompts.

The Academy Allows AI as a Supporting Tool

As a result, disputes over copyright, authorship, and ownership are becoming increasingly common in Hollywood. Actors, writers, and major studios have already filed a series of lawsuits against AI companies, accusing them of copyright infringement. The main complaint is that large language models are trained on texts, images, and videos created by humans over the course of decades.

The Academy has also reserved the right to verify the origin of creative work. The rules explicitly state: “If questions arise regarding the aforementioned use of generative artificial intelligence, the Academy reserves the right to request more information about the nature of the use and human authorship.”

For many, this has signaled that the film industry is beginning to take the issue of AI regulation more seriously. And that makes sense. Today, audiences still want to see genuine emotions, authentic acting, and an author’s style in films, rather than just technically correct content created by algorithms. That is why the new Oscar rules are now perceived not merely as a legal clarification, but as an attempt to protect the very idea of human creativity in the age of AI.