Hollywood’s awards season rulebook just got a clear new update on artificial intelligence, with Golden Globe organizers announcing Thursday that performances created entirely or substantially by AI will not be considered for the prestigious annual honors. The policy shift comes just days after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the governing body behind the Oscars, laid out its own restrictive AI rules for the film industry’s top awards, marking a unified industry stance on the hotly contested technology.
The new Golden Globe guidelines do not implement a blanket ban on all AI use in performances, however. Rulemakers have carved out exceptions for technical and cosmetic AI applications that enhance rather than replace human work. Uses such as AI-powered de-aging, aging effects, or minor visual adjustments to a performer’s on-screen appearance are allowed, as long as the core, underlying performance is delivered by the credited human actor, and AI does not fundamentally replace or alter the human’s creative work. Only submissions where the performance itself is primarily generated or created by artificial intelligence are marked ineligible.
This coordinated move by two of Hollywood’s most prominent awards organizations comes amid years of growing tension around AI in the entertainment sector. The issue was a core bargaining demand during the 2023 Hollywood labor strikes, which shut down most film and television production for months. Both acting and writing guilds argued that unregulated use of AI could displace human workers, erase creative credits, and threaten the long-term livelihoods of industry professionals.
The latest policy changes also follow a high-profile demonstration of AI-generated acting that sparked widespread industry debate. Last year, an AI-recreated version of late Hollywood star Val Kilmer was unveiled at a gathering of cinema chain owners, one year after Kilmer’s death. The digitally de-aged Kilmer appeared in a trailer for the upcoming archaeological action film *As Deep as the Grave*, delivering a full line of dialogue to another character. The project was developed with the full support of Kilmer’s family, who granted creators access to the actor’s extensive personal video archives to recreate his likeness and performance at multiple stages of his life. Even with family approval, the project renewed urgent conversations about how AI should be regulated in professional entertainment and awards recognition.