On April 20, at the iQiYi recruitment congress, the platform caused a shock when announcing a list of more than 100 artists believed to have signed personal image authorization contracts for iQiYi's AI data warehouse.
Among them, many famous actors appeared on the display screen such as Tran Triet Vien, Tang Thuan Hy, Vuong So Nhien, Thua Loi, Truong Nhuoc Quan, Vu Hoa Vy, Trach Tieu Van, Quach Tuan Than, Ma To, Tham Vu Khiet, Tuong Long, Lu Tieu Vu...
At the congress, iQiYi CEO - Cung Vu - said: "In the near future, AI can help actors have more private time for themselves. Actors' work is often very hard, filming continuously for 3-4 months, 10-14 hours a day, they have no private life.
AI helps actors act in 4 to 14 movies in a row each year, also to give everyone more time to rest.
He also said: "In the future, seeing real people acting in movies may become an intangible asset.
CEO Cung Vu's statement immediately faced a strong wave of criticism on Chinese social networks. The keyword "iQiYi is crazy" climbed to the top 1 trend on Weibo, audiences simultaneously called for boycotting iQiYi.
In the afternoon of the same day, many artists such as Vuong So Nhien, Ly Nhat Dong, Truong Nhuoc Quan, Vuong Ngoc Van, Vu Hoa Vy quickly spoke out to deny authorizing the use of images for AI.
These artists emphasized that they have not signed any authorization agreements on artificial intelligence, and will transfer the case to the legal department for settlement.
Meanwhile, Chinese media quoted lawyer Li Zhenyu of Shanghai Lizhen Law Office as saying: when using AI, risks such as model fine-tuning, data leakage, or retraining without authorization... are very difficult to completely eliminate within the framework of current technology.
He said that before signing a contract, artists can rely on the regulations on image rights and personal rights in the Chinese Civil Code to protect their rights, and the law also has relatively clear protection.
However, after signing and granting rights, disputes will mainly be resolved based on contract terms. iQiYi committed to only using within the project scope, but once images have been put into the big data system, it is almost impossible to avoid the risk of abuse.
