How to Fight Back Against AI

Overwatch game director Aaron Keller announced in early 2026 that the development team is 'not comfortable' shipping AI-generated content to players, committing to keep the game a 'handcrafted universe.' Keller stated that every hero, map, skin, and narrative element should reflect human artistry an…

San Diego Comic-Con reversed its previous AI-permissive policy and banned all AI-generated art from its 2026 Art Show in January 2026, responding to intense backlash from professional artists including concept artist Tiana Oreglia and illustrator Karla Ortiz. The new policy states that 'material cre…

SFWA updated the Nebula Awards rules in December 2025 to disqualify any work written 'either wholly or partially' using generative large language model tools, after initial rules allowing partial AI use triggered immediate member backlash. The organization issued a formal apology and fully revised t…

Weta FX, one of the world's leading visual effects studios, partnered with Amazon Web Services to build AI tools explicitly designed to serve artists rather than replace them, stating 'AI belongs in the service of artists, not the other way around.' CTO Kimball Thurston clarified 'We're not talking …

iHeartMedia launched its 'Guaranteed Human' initiative in November 2025, pledging that all its radio stations will not use AI-generated personalities or play AI-generated music featuring synthetic vocalists. Every DJ on iHeart stations must now include a line in their hourly legal IDs affirming they…

DC Comics president and publisher Jim Lee declared at New York Comic Con 2025 that the company will never use AI-generated storytelling or artwork, stating 'Not now, not ever, as long as Anne DePies and I are in charge.' Lee argued that 'AI doesn't dream. It doesn't feel. It doesn't make art. It agg…

Spotify strengthened protections for human artists in September 2025, announcing that vocal impersonation of artists using AI is only permitted if the artist has explicitly authorized it. The company deployed AI-powered spam detection that removed over 75 million 'spammy' tracks and launched a new i…

Klarna reversed its 2024 decision to replace 700 customer service agents with AI, publicly announcing in May 2025 that it was rehiring human customer service staff after CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski admitted 'we focused too much on efficiency and cost' and that AI had produced 'lower quality' outcome…

Penguin Random House became the first of the Big Five publishers to add explicit language to all of its books' copyright pages prohibiting AI training use, stating 'No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or system…

California AB 3030 (signed 2024) requires healthcare providers using AI to generate patient communications to include a clear disclosure that the message was AI-generated and provide a means for the patient to reach a human healthcare provider. The law responds to the rapid adoption of AI-generated …

California AB 2013 (signed 2024) requires developers of AI systems trained on data generated after January 1, 2022 to publicly post documentation about their training data, including what types of data were used, whether consent was obtained, and what harmful categories of data (such as AI-generated…

California AB 1066 (proposed 2024) would have required employers to notify workers at least 30 days before deploying automated decision systems that could affect their employment terms, conditions, or performance evaluations. The bill aimed to give workers time to prepare, retrain, or challenge AI-d…

California SB 1047 (2024) would have required developers of large AI foundation models to implement safety protocols and conduct testing before deploying systems that could affect critical infrastructure, including employment systems. The bill created a Board of Frontier Models and established liabi…

California's Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976, 2024) bans social media platforms from serving AI-driven addictive feed features (infinite scroll, push notifications, autoplay) to users under 18 without parental consent. Platforms must develop age-appropriate versions of th…

California AB 1836 (2024) requires explicit consent to use a deceased person's digital likeness to create AI-generated performances, photos, or voice recordings. Studios and tech companies that create AI representations of deceased performers without consent from the estate face civil liability. The…

California AB 2602 (2024) prohibits studios and employers from using AI to replicate a performer's digital likeness in ways that would have required the performer to be physically present, without a specific negotiated agreement covering the specific use. The law protects actors, singers, and other …

California SB 1381 (2024) makes it a crime to create or distribute AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), closing a legal gap that had allowed synthetic AI-generated images to escape prosecution under laws written for photographic CSAM. The law applies even when no real child was used and …

California AB 3279 (2024) requires large AI data centers to report annual greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, and energy usage to the California Air Resources Board, and develop a plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035. The bill targets the exploding energy and water demands of AI model …

The TAKE IT DOWN Act (Taking Action to Knock out Exploitative Non-Consensual AI-Generated Images of Minors) was signed into law in 2025, requiring platforms to remove AI-generated sexual images of minors within 48 hours of a report. The law creates a federal felony for publishing non-consensual inti…

Dark Horse Comics announced on July 18, 2024 that it does not support the use of AI-generated material in any works it publishes, covering both AI writing and AI artwork. All contracts with creators include explicit language stating that the work will not contain material generated by AI programs, a…

Minnesota HF 4432 (2024) requires political communications using AI-generated content depicting real people to prominently disclose the use of AI. The law also prohibits AI-generated deepfakes that falsely depict candidates saying things they did not say within 90 days of an election, creating both …

The EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689), adopted in May 2024, classifies AI systems used in employment — including CV sorting, interview analysis, task allocation, and performance monitoring — as high-risk AI. Employers must conduct conformity assessments, maintain logs, provide transparency to workers…

Colorado SB24-205 (signed May 2024) is the first comprehensive US state AI law, applying to developers and deployers of high-risk AI systems used in consequential decisions about employment, education, housing, healthcare, credit, and legal matters. Developers must use reasonable care to protect con…

Maryland's Kids Code (SB 571 / HB 603, 2024) requires social media platforms and AI-driven services to configure all settings to the most privacy-protective defaults for users under 18, and prohibits the use of AI profiling algorithms to serve personalized content to minors without verifiable parent…