Creativity through transparency. We build synthetic media for a living, which means we don't get to be vague about how it should be governed. Here's where we stand, in the order we think it matters: transparency, then safety, then rights, then accountability.
Transparency is the baseline, not the ceiling. Audiences should be able to know when they're looking at synthetic media. Disclosure isn't an apology for the work; it's a condition of trusting it.
Governance belongs at the root, not the last frame. Most policy energy goes into labeling outputs. The consequential decisions happen upstream: what a model was trained on, whose likeness and work it absorbed, what consent existed. Regulating only the final frame is regulating the smoke.
Platforms aren't referees, but they aren't exempt either. Distribution is where harm scales. Platforms should carry real obligations for provenance and disclosure, without becoming the arbiters of what art is allowed to exist.
Rules should be context-aware. A synthetic performer in a drama and a synthetic politician in a fake news clip are not the same act. Good policy distinguishes satire from deception, fiction from fraud, and consented likeness from stolen identity.
✓ Disclose AI use in the work we deliver, in the way the platform and the law require.
✓ Use provenance and content credentials (C2PA and equivalents) where the tools support it.
✓ Honor consent and likeness rights. Written permission, every time, no exceptions for convenience.
✓ Keep a human accountable for every frame that ships. "The model did it" is not a defense.
✓ Support reasonable audits and disclosure standards, including where they cost us work.
✓ Track the law as it changes, including Texas TRAIGA and likeness statutes elsewhere, and brief clients honestly.
✓ Tell a client when AI is the wrong tool for their job.
✗ Make deceptive political deepfakes. Not for any budget.
✗ Produce non-consensual intimate imagery. No exceptions.
✗ Hide behind the model. If our pipeline made it, we own it.
✗ Build pipelines designed to evade safety systems or platform rules.
If you're a client, a journalist, or a policymaker who thinks we've fallen short of this, say so directly. That's what a line in the sand is for.
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