Hollywood fights over AI grow as lawsuits and union talks near in 2026

In short: Hollywood is in a widening dispute over how AI is trained and used, and the next big flashpoints are court cases and union contract talks in 2026.

What's going on

Several lawsuits claim AI companies broke copyright law by training AI on books, scripts, and other protected work without permission. Training data is the material an AI learns from, like the books a student studies before taking a test. In one case, actress Sarah Silverman and authors sued Meta, but the judge dismissed it because of filing mistakes by the plaintiffs’ lawyers, and that dismissal only applied to the 13 people involved.

Another case involves writers suing Anthropic over its chatbot Claude, which is available at /claude. The writers lost one argument because the court accepted that the system changes many works into new output, but the case is still heading toward a December trial focused on how the data was obtained.

Outside the courts, hundreds of Hollywood creatives have asked the White House to require licensing for AI training, meaning AI companies would need permission and likely payment to use copyrighted work. Some performers are also speaking out about AI copying voices without consent, while others are signing deals to license their voices for AI use.

What to watch

The Writers Guild of America contract expires on May 1, 2026, and AI rules are expected to be a major issue in negotiations. SAG-AFTRA faces similar questions for actors, including limits on digital replicas and AI-generated performances. Court rulings and these labor talks will help set the basic rules for who gets paid, who gets credit, and when AI can be used in movies and TV.

Source: NYTimes