Christopher Nolan Says AI Copyright Protection Is Now Up To Studios, Warns Against Misuse

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan has said Hollywood studios must take greater responsibility for protecting copyrighted films from artificial intelligence misuse. The Directors Guild of America (DGA) president believes that while negotiations have secured important safeguards for filmmakers, the next phase of the fight depends on studios enforcing copyright protections. Nolan has also questioned how companies use artificial intelligence as an excuse to avoid accountability.

Christopher Nolan Says AI Copyright Protection Is Up To Studios

Speaking on the Hollywood Insiders podcast on Saturday, Nolan praised the DGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) for negotiating safeguards around AI in film and television production. However, he said the responsibility for protecting copyrighted material rests with studios.

“We’re very focused at the guild about holding the studios to account for protecting their copyrights. We can’t do that,” Nolan said. “With very few exceptions in the guild, we are not the copyright holders of the films that we’ve worked on. It’s down to the studios to do that.”

He also argued that AI had become an overly broad term used by companies to avoid responsibility. “AI is too big a catchall term,” he said. “It’s describing too many things. It’s being used by companies to absolve themselves of responsibility.”

Nolan Questions Hollywood's Use Of Fair-Use Provisions

Nolan further criticised companies that rely on fair-use provisions to defend the use of copyrighted material for AI training. He said, “There’s already legislation in place that protects people, protects creators, etc. And the fact that they these companies hide behind fair use provisions, for example. I think longer term that won’t hold up in court. There have already been some significant judgments against it.”

The filmmaker also welcomed the copyright warning included at the end of his upcoming film The Odyssey. He said, “And I was very pleased to see that the boilerplate at the end of The Odyssey, for the first time, it contains a message saying that this film cannot be ingested and used as training data.”

Christopher Nolan's Role As DGA President

Nolan became DGA president in September 2025 after serving on its Artificial Intelligence Committee. He has previously argued that filmmakers need a say in how AI is used and how their work is protected, particularly because their residual income depends on the proper monetisation of film copyrights.