Screen Industry Signs Five Declarations on AI at Lumiere Sum

Countries, screen industry bodies, and rights organizations adopted five thematic declarations at the Lumiere Summit on Monday at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, establishing shared frameworks across artificial intelligence, piracy, image education, gender equality, and environmental sustainability. The landmark agreements represent a coordinated global effort to address rapidly evolving challenges facing film, television, animation, video games, and immersive content production. All five declarations remain open for signature, inviting additional countries and organizations to join the initiative.

Among the initial signatories are France, the Republic of Korea, SACEM – the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique, France’s music authors and publishers rights society – and Adami, France’s collective management organization for performers’ rights. The diverse group of participants demonstrates broad international support for establishing common standards in an industry experiencing unprecedented technological transformation.

The Saint-Paul-de-Vence Declaration on Artificial Intelligence

AI technology has already embedded itself throughout screenwriting, previsualization, visual effects, editing, dubbing, localization, and content recommendation systems across multiple screen industries. The Saint-Paul-de-Vence Declaration on Artificial Intelligence does not ask whether the screen industries should use AI – it sets out to determine on what terms, and who decides. Its six principles aim to shape legislation, industry conduct, and cross-border cooperation going forward, establishing guardrails for an industry grappling with rapid technological change.

The first principle places AI systems that produce, disseminate or transform cultural works – or that are trained on them – within the scope of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on cultural diversity. This classification positions artificial intelligence tools as cultural instruments subject to international cultural policy frameworks, rather than treating them as purely technical or commercial products. The declaration seeks to ensure that cultural considerations remain central to AI deployment in creative industries.

Intellectual Property Protections and Fair Compensation

The second principle affirms that human-created works form the foundation on which generative systems depend, and that any use of protected works for training purposes must honor intellectual property law and result in fair payment to those who hold the rights. This provision directly addresses growing concerns among creators about unauthorized use of copyrighted material to train AI models without compensation or consent. The framework establishes that technological innovation cannot supersede existing rights protections.

The third principle recognizes the preservation of human artistic and creative employment as an enduring public policy objective. This acknowledgment responds to widespread anxiety about AI potentially displacing human workers across the creative industries, from writers and editors to voice actors and visual effects artists. By enshrining employment protection as a policy priority, the declaration signals that technological efficiency cannot justify wholesale replacement of human creative labor.

Transparency Requirements for AI Systems

On transparency, the declaration calls for revealing what training datasets contain and where the material comes from, clear identification of content that has been generated or altered by AI, and mechanisms that give rightsholders the means to identify uses of their work and enforce their entitlements. These transparency requirements would fundamentally change how AI companies disclose their data sources and training methods, addressing current opacity in how generative systems acquire and process creative content. The framework also demands clear labeling of AI-generated or AI-modified content to prevent audience deception.

The declaration also reaffirms the sovereign authority of nations and regions to design and update their own cultural policy frameworks as the technology landscape shifts. This provision ensures that individual countries retain the power to implement stricter regulations than the baseline international framework if they determine local cultural needs require additional protections. The flexible approach recognizes that different markets and cultural contexts may require tailored regulatory responses.

Linguistic Diversity and Extended Rights Protections

A sixth principle backs AI development in languages outside the dominant global canon, while extending rights protections covering the full creative chain – from writers and producers down to performers and voice artists – and extending to rights over likeness and voice. This commitment addresses concerns that AI development has concentrated primarily on English and other major languages, potentially accelerating cultural homogenization and marginalizing smaller linguistic communities. The expanded rights framework recognizes that digital reproduction technologies create new vulnerabilities for performers whose voices and likenesses can now be synthesized without ongoing consent or payment.

The AI declaration opens a pathway for further work within the screen industries, establishing these principles as a foundation for ongoing dialogue rather than a static final framework. Industry observers expect the principles will influence legislative debates in multiple jurisdictions as governments worldwide grapple with how to regulate artificial intelligence in creative sectors. The framework provides policymakers with an internationally coordinated starting point developed with input from rights holders, industry bodies, and cultural organizations.

Additional Declarations Address Industry Challenges

While the AI declaration received the most attention given current technological disruption, the summit’s four additional declarations address equally pressing concerns for screen industries. The agreements on piracy, image education, gender equality, and environmental sustainability reflect the industry’s recognition that it faces multiple interconnected challenges requiring coordinated international responses. Details on these companion declarations were not fully disclosed in initial summit reports.

The Lumiere Summit represents a significant diplomatic achievement for screen industry stakeholders seeking to establish common standards across fragmented international markets. By convening countries and industry organizations around shared principles, the summit creates pressure for individual jurisdictions to align their domestic regulations with emerging international norms. The open signature process allows the declarations to gain additional legitimacy and broader geographic coverage as more participants join.

As the screen industries continue their rapid technological transformation, the frameworks established at Saint-Paul-de-Vence may prove influential in determining whether artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies enhance or undermine creative work, cultural diversity, and fair compensation for artists and rights holders worldwide.