Cate Blanchett Launches RSL Media: Open AI Consent Standard Backed by Clooney, Streep, and Hanks

Cate Blanchett launched RSL Media on May 12, 2026, a nonprofit building a free, open and machine readable standard that lets any person declare whether artificial intelligence may use their likeness, voice, creative work, or identity. The announcement arrived on the opening day of the Cannes Film Festival and immediately drew backing from dozens of the biggest names in film, television, and music.

What RSL Media Does

The standard gives anyone three consent settings for how AI systems may use their likeness, voice, creative work, or identity: "allowed", "allowed with terms", or "prohibited". The public registry launches in June 2026 and is free to use for anyone, not only celebrities.

RSL Media operates under a Creative Commons open license, meaning any studio, streaming platform, distributor, or AI company can adopt it at no cost. RSL stands for right to self-likeness. The initiative is designed to sit beneath whatever legal frameworks individual countries develop, functioning as shared consent infrastructure.

The Coalition Behind It

Blanchett started RSL Media alongside founding partners Nikki Hexum, Doug Leeds, and Eckart Walther. Public backers include George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Dame Helen Mirren, Emma Thompson, Viola Davis, Javier Bardem, Kristen Stewart, Steven Soderbergh, Creative Artists Agency, and the Music Artists Coalition.

The breadth of the coalition, spanning film, television, music, and a major talent agency, signals that AI consent concerns go well beyond any single guild or collective bargaining cycle.

What the Founders Said

Blanchett pointed to the gap between AI's rate of expansion and the laws meant to govern it. "AI technologies are expanding rampantly, essentially unchecked and unregulated", she said. "RSL Media is a simple, effective and free solutions-based technology for facilitating and activating consent", she added.

Emma Thompson put the stakes in sharper terms. "Of course artists and cultural creatives will inevitably be involved with AI", she said. "At the moment, however, AI is merely stealing from us all. This is an urgent and essential initiative".

A Different Tool Than a Union Contract

The SAG-AFTRA deal reached in May 2026 addresses AI protection through collective bargaining: it covers union members, in covered productions, in jurisdictions where it applies. RSL Media is designed to cover any person, anywhere, for any use of AI.

The standard does not carry legal enforcement power on its own. It creates a formal consent record that laws and contracts can reference. Protective frameworks have emerged at the state level, including the California Digital Replica Law, and through international negotiations like the UK Equity AI pact. RSL Media aims to be the open infrastructure that connects all of them.

Launched at Cannes for Maximum Reach

Blanchett chose the Cannes Film Festival opening for the launch at the moment when the industry's AI debate is most concentrated. The official Cannes competition banned generative AI from its Palme d'Or selection this year, and filmmaker statements at the festival have placed AI at the center of every major press conference in the festival's first days.

The production-side version of this consent model has existed since 2020: Deep Voodoo, Trey Parker and Matt Stone's AI studio, has refused jobs without performer authorization from its first day of operation.

The RSL standard addresses a different problem than the Cannes competition ban. The ban governs what films may compete for prizes. RSL Media governs whether AI systems may train on or generate content using a person's likeness in the first place. The two are complementary, targeting different points in the production and distribution chain.

Creators working with AI video tools can generate text-to-video and image-to-video at AI FILMS Studio's video workspace.

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Sources

Variety | GlobeNewswire | The Register | Music Ally