U.S. regulator rejects Apple, Disney bid to skip vote on AI

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has ruled that Apple and Disney are required to include shareholder votes on the utilization of AI, as proposed by a labour group, removing the possibility of avoiding such assessments.

The AFL-CIO pension trust, the largest American labour union federation, submitted similar shareholder proposals to both companies, urging comprehensive reports on their AI applications and ethical guidelines.

At Apple, the group asked for a report on the company’s use of AI “in its business operations and disclose any ethical guidelines that the company has adopted regarding the company’s use of AI technology.” In a similar request, it also asked Disney to report on its board’s role in overseeing AI usage.

In its supporting statement at Apple, the AFL-CIO wrote that “AI systems should not be trained on copyrighted works or the voices, likenesses, and performances of professional performers without transparency, consent, and compensation to creators and rights holders.”

Brandon Rees, deputy director of the AFL-CIO’s office of investment, said the SEC’s decisions could pave the way for agreements with Apple and Disney that would only bring them into line with the AI disclosures of other companies like Microsoft.

Also Read: AI can create more jobs than it potentially eliminates – Gurnani

Apple and Disney, in contrast, “haven’t even begun to grapple with these ethical issues” around AI, Rees said.

Both companies had argued the proposals could be left off their ballots because they related to “ordinary business operations,” such as the company’s choice of technologies.

The SEC disagreed. “In our view, the proposal transcends ordinary business matters and does not seek to micromanage the company,” the agency wrote in separate letters.

Corporations have enthusiastically adopted new technologies like AI for their potential efficiencies. However, this trend has sparked concerns about the potential replacement of numerous creative and professional workers or the unjust appropriation of their work. These concerns have manifested in recent Hollywood labour disputes and even resulted in a lawsuit filed by The New York Times.