AI consent – Cate Blanchett co-founded RSL Media, a non-profit creating a public consent registry for AI use of creative work, images, and identities.
A new push for consent in artificial intelligence is gaining momentum after actress Cate Blanchett helped co-found a non-profit designed to make permissions around creative work and identity more visible to machines.
Blanchett is co-founding RSL Media. an initiative built around the idea that consent should come first when AI systems use creative material. including name. image and likeness.. The non-profit argues that AI tools are increasingly using human expression without a clear. readable permission framework. leaving many creators unable to control how their work or identity is used.
RSL Media’s approach centers on a “human consent framework” intended to translate permission into something AI systems can understand.. The report stated that the organization is creating an industry standard that can function as a universal signal. rather than leaving consent buried in complex. hard-to-interpret rights structures.
Among those backing the effort are Javier Bardem, George Clooney, Viola Davis, Tom Hanks, Dame Helen Mirren, Steven Soderbergh, Kristen Stewart, Meryl Streep, Dame Emma Thompson, along with major industry and advocacy groups including the Creative Artists Agency and the Music Artists Coalition.
The core component, RSL Human Consent Standard, is set to launch in June as a free, public registry. The report said the registry would allow anyone to declare their AI permissions, positioning consent as a practical input that creators can set and verify.
Blanchett said AI technologies are expanding quickly and “essentially unchecked and unregulated. ” arguing that consent must become the first consideration if humans are going to remain in control.. She added that RSL Media is presented as a “simple. effective and free” solution for facilitating and activating consent. and she framed it as an ability for people everywhere—not only highly visible public figures—to assert control over how their work is used by AI.
RSL Media co-founder and CEO Nikki Hexum emphasized that the problem is not simply legal. but technical: AI systems cannot respect rights they cannot “see.” She said human consent is “virtually invisible” in the current digital era and argued that deciding whether AI can use someone’s work or identity should be treated as a basic human right rather than something reserved for those who can afford specialized legal resources or maintain the biggest platforms.
Hexum further stated that the organization was created to make choices clear for creators, so responsible companies can honor them and policymakers have a workable path to make AI protections function in real-world conditions.
RSL Media’s consent model allows people to choose whether identity and creative works may be used by AI systems—described as either allowed with terms or prohibited.. The report compared the choices to a traffic-light system and said the system also provides AI systems a universal way to understand consent. aiming to reduce confusion caused by complex rights arrangements.
The initiative also arrives as Blanchett has previously spoken publicly about risks posed by AI.. Earlier this year. the report stated she was among 700 artists. writers and creators—including Scarlett Johansson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt—who supported an anti-AI campaign that called out tech companies for exploiting copyrighted work without permission.
Support from additional high-profile creatives underscores the drive behind the non-profit.. Thompson said that artists and cultural creatives will inevitably be involved with AI. but argued that at present AI is “merely stealing from us all. ” calling the initiative urgent and essential while also describing it as feasible.
Soderbergh described the standard as offering a solution to a serious problem, characterizing it as simple, transparent, and resistant to manipulation. He suggested that adoption of the independent standard should happen sooner rather than later.
Mirren, in her support of the effort, drew a line between inspiration and imitation, saying artists know there is a divide between the one that extends imagination and the other that blocks it while also amounting to theft.
As of today, the report indicated that registrants can reserve a consent ID and become a trusted partner.. In June. RSL Media will launch the free public registry. where people will be able to register and verify their identity. set permissions for how their identity and creative works may be used by AI. and access additional related functions described as part of the system.
Beyond the celebrity backing. the larger idea behind RSL Media is to turn a personal or professional permission choice into a signal that can be acted on at scale.. If the public registry performs as intended. it could reshape how consent is implemented across AI development and licensing—shifting the conversation from broad. hard-to-enforce categories to a more machine-readable permission layer.
AI consent Cate Blanchett RSL Media creative work permissions name image likeness consent registry