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Fox Entertainment has joined Disney, the New York Times, Adobe and other members of the Alliance for Responsible Innovation in the Arts & Media (ARIAM), becoming the latest entertainment company to advocate for AI guardrails
as many figure out how to navigate the technology’s impact on their businesses.
“Fox is excited about AI’s potential to support human creativity and the delivery of great entertainment for audiences around the world,” Jennifer Jones, Fox’s senior vice president of business and legal affairs, said in a statement provided to Variety. “We believe responsible AI can unlock the next generation of storytelling and creative innovation, and we’re proud to support ARIAM in advancing this important mission.”
Members of ARIAM include Condé Nast, the Financial Times, ITV, Advance, the BBC, Cambridge University Press & Assessment, U.K. publisher Reach and Wiley. The coalition was founded by Victoria Furniss, CEO of consulting firm Birdella Group. Since the coalition’s launch, she has met with members of the European Parliament, weighed in on Australia’s moves to curb AI data centers and protect rightsholders’ work, and has begun setting up meetings with new U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s cabinet to position the coalition as a thought leader in AI regulatory efforts.
“The timing, honestly, I think, couldn’t have been better in terms of our launch,” said Furniss, a former Netflix and Warner Bros. executive. “There’s so much happening in this space. Something also popped in Australia, and we’ve been able to comment on that and make sure that our name is present. So, really, in short, the last four weeks has been all about making sure ARIAM is top of mind for those groups.”
Fox’s addition to the coalition signals both the company’s willingness to engage with AI while also recognizing the need to do so responsibly, Furniss said. Fox’s recent efforts in the space include its equity investment in the microseries startup Holywater earlier this year and its AI-driven advertising platform Fox AdStudio.
“Companies need to do the right thing when it comes to mitigating harms that could come from it,” Furniss said. “You know the bad side of AI. So by coming on board with the coalition, I think it’s signaling to the market that Fox really cares about that issue, and it also just adds a great breadth and depth of experience to the group when it comes to navigating what this really means in practice. So I’m delighted to welcome them.”
Furniss said the coalition is speaking to other potential new members, including those in the gaming and sports industries, and it was considering other issues that fit within the group’s parameters, such as the outcry last month from the Agents for Young Performers Association over a “major studio” allegedly mandating its child voice actors sign their voices away for AI use. Deadline reported that studio was Hasbro, who reportedly instilled the practice on the children’s show “Peppa Pig.”
“This is more of an adjacent issue, but nonetheless, the idea is that generative AI is used for good things, not bad things,” she said. “Exploiting kids would be very much of a concern to a lot of the members that we have, particularly Disney. so although I haven’t opined on that particular piece of news, I think that is something in the future, if that was to be a trend, we probably want to get involved.”
