RSL Media Finds Support From Hollywood A-Listers Amid AI Battle

Actress Cate Blanchett and Nikki Hexum, wife of 311’s Nick Hexum, have co-founded RSL Media, a nonprofit that addresses consent around AI usage. The goal is to provide a human consent framework for AI’s use of creative work, name, image and likeness. The free, public registry, dubbed the “RSL Human Consent Standard,” launches in June and allows anyone to declare their AI permissions. It turns human consent into a signal that machines can read.

Advocates and supporters include CAA, the Music Artists Coalition, Javier Bardem, George Clooney, Viola Davis, Tom Hanks, Dame Helen Mirren, Steven Soderbergh, Kristen Stewart, Meryl Streep and Dame Emma Thompson.

“AI technologies are expanding rampantly, essentially unchecked and unregulated. In order for humans to remain in front of these technologies, consent must be the first consideration.” Blanchett said. “RSL Media is a simple, effective and free solutions-based technology for facilitating and activating consent. It’s also the industry’s first practical solution where people everywhere, not just public figures, can assert control over how their work is used by AI.”

Hexum further explained, “RSL Media was created to make those choices clear so people can set their own terms, responsible companies can honor them and policymakers have a practical way to make AI protections work in the real world.”

Blanchett was one of the 700 artists, writers and creators who supported the anti-AI campaign “Stealing Isn’t Innovation” earlier this year. As of today, registrants can reserve a consent ID and become a trusted partner of RSL Media.

Nick Hexum, who serves on both the org’s standard and artist governance boards, tells HITS, “It’s a very unique concept that didn’t exist before. There are companies offering to protect you from AI if you pay them, but that’s kind of like a protection racket. Like a mobster saying, ‘Nice business you got there. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.’ RSL Media is an open source standard, free for anyone to use. It’s truly a grassroots movement.”

Read more here.