AI has stopped knocking on Hollywood’s door and started collecting awards inside it. The technology has already found its way into Oscar-recognized filmmaking, from The Brutalist using AI voice editing to refine Adrien Brody’s Hungarian accent during his Oscar-winning performance to Here vying for a Best Visual Effects nomination after digitally de-aging Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Even Everything Everywhere All at Once used Runway AI for its visual effects.

In this increasingly AI-powered era, BAFTA has added a new rule to its rulebook, perhaps keeping Hollywood’s newest creative wildcard from running completely wild.

BAFTA has given generative AI a new rulebook entry, and it comes with a polite request to show its working. Under the new clause announced by BAFTA, the organization can ask for details about how generative AI or other digital tools were used and how much human creative involvement remained. In other words, the machines may assist, but the humans should still get the credit.

The new clause arrives as part of BAFTA’s latest submission-rule refresh, which also expands the Outstanding British Film Longlist. The British Academy announced the changes this morning as part of a wider update to its awards framework. The generative AI rule will also appear in the rulebooks for the organization’s other 2027 awards and is not only applicable to films but also to television and games.

BAFTA said the change followed consultation with the industry and was designed to reaffirm that its awards recognize “outstanding human creative achievement.” The BAFTA announcement places the organization firmly in the middle of Hollywood’s increasingly complicated relationship with AI. As the technology becomes more common across filmmaking, BAFTA appears keen to ensure the human element does not become a footnote.

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BAFTA seems to be embracing an industry-wide shift toward AI, especially in awards season, giving them another talking point besides waiting for royalty to walk through the door, as it did at the recent BAFTA.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided that, before artificial intelligence starts collecting Oscars, somebody should first prove that a human made the thing. Its 2027 rules require producers to sign an 'Affidavit of Human Origin,' while AI-generated actors and digital avatars are barred from acting categories. Screenplays, meanwhile, must remain human-authored.

The Golden Globes have joined the party by banning AI-generated actors from eligibility, making the awards world look unusually united. Hollywood may still use AI for visual effects, sound editing, and colour grading, so the machines are not being escorted entirely off the premises. The message is simply becoming harder to miss: AI may help make the film, but it cannot take the creative credit.

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Do you think BAFTA's new AI rule keeps AI from calling the shots? Let us know in the comments!