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Just Days Before Cesar Awards, French Movie Stars Warn AI Plundering Industry

An expressive image of the debate between French cinema industry and AI (Shutterstock)
An expressive image of the debate between French cinema industry and AI (Shutterstock)
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Just Days Before Cesar Awards, French Movie Stars Warn AI Plundering Industry

An expressive image of the debate between French cinema industry and AI (Shutterstock)
An expressive image of the debate between French cinema industry and AI (Shutterstock)

Just days before France’s version of the Oscars, thousands of French actors and filmmakers have warned that AI tools are “plundering” talent across the industry.

“We are facing a profound upheaval in our profession with the arrival of artificial intelligence,” said the op-ed in Le Parisien, which was signed by some 4,000 artists.

The petition stated that the industry has already been struggling with unauthorized voice cloning, image scraping and undervalued AI licensing deals for some time.

Signatories included many French movie stars, such as Berenice Bejo, Léa Drucker, Swann Arlaud, José Garcia, Karin Viard, Franck Dubosc and Elodie Bouchez.

The op-ed, released ahead of the 51st edition of the French film industry’s Cesar Awards, warned of the rise of “unauthorized voice cloning,” which has taken the industry by storm.

“This tool, extraordinarily valuable for certain professions, is also a devouring hydra for the artists that we are,” the op-ed said, adding that “Not a week goes by without an artist sounding the alarm over the brutal competition AI is inflicting on their work.”

It stated that just recently, “an actor was offered a contract to use his image by AI for the creation of a new commercial for a major French group, simply replacing two days of filming. A Faustian pact... paid 250 euros!”

The op-ed also pointed to the hundreds of lesser-established actors, often lacking leverage, and who feel pressured to sign contracts granting AI rights, “despite the risks to their image and their future.”

As such, French actors said they demand “guarantees that no artist will be forced to give up their digital identity.”

“This organized plundering is not hypothetical — it’s happening here and now. It’s intolerable, and it’s taking place before our very eyes.” The artists called for a clear “legal framework” so that AI can “coexist with artistic work, with the protection of copyright and related rights.”

In recent months, the industry has introduced various initiatives to tackle the threat posed by AI and the flood of content replicating artists and their voices almost perfectly.

In January, eight French voice actors sent formal notices to two US companies that had cloned their voices without consent. Actors have also taken to the streets of Paris under the slogan “Touche pas à ma VF” (Hands off my French dub).

The debate goes far beyond France. Last week, Hollywood heavyweights accused the Chinese software Seedance 2.0, built by TikTok owner ByteDance, of copyright infringement after AI-generated videos, including of Tom Cruise brawling with Brad Pitt, went viral.

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Varieties

A Horse’s Neigh May Be Unique in the Animal Kingdom. Now Scientists Know How They Do It 

Horses are prepared for sale at Skaryszew's Horse Market in Skaryszew, east-central Poland, 23 February 2026. (EPA)
Horses are prepared for sale at Skaryszew's Horse Market in Skaryszew, east-central Poland, 23 February 2026. (EPA)
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A Horse’s Neigh May Be Unique in the Animal Kingdom. Now Scientists Know How They Do It 

Horses are prepared for sale at Skaryszew's Horse Market in Skaryszew, east-central Poland, 23 February 2026. (EPA)
Horses are prepared for sale at Skaryszew's Horse Market in Skaryszew, east-central Poland, 23 February 2026. (EPA)

Horses whinny to find new friends, greet old ones and celebrate happy moments like feeding time.

How exactly horses produce that distinctive sound — also called a neigh — has long eluded scientists.

The whinny is an unusual combination of both high and low pitched sounds, like a cross between a grunt and a squeal — that come out at the same time.

The low-pitched part wasn't much of a mystery. It comes from air passing over bands of tissue in the voice box that make noise when they vibrate. It's a technique similar to how humans speak and sing.

But the high-pitched piece is more puzzling. With some exceptions, larger animals have larger vocal systems and typically make lower sounds. So how do horses do it?

According to a new study, they whistle.

Researchers slid a small camera through horses' noses to film what happened inside while they whinnied and made another common horse sound, the softer, subtler nicker. They also conducted detailed scans and blew air through the isolated voice boxes of dead horses.

The whinny's mysterious high-pitched tones, they discovered, are a kind of whistling that starts in the horse's voice box. Air vibrates the tissues in the voice box while an area just above contracts, leaving a small opening for the whistle to escape.

That's different from human whistling, which we do with our mouths.

"I'd never imagined that there was a whistling component. It's really interesting, and I can hear that now," said Jenifer Nadeau, who studies horses at the University of Connecticut. Nadeau was not involved with the study, which was published Monday in the journal Current Biology.

A few small rodents like rats and mice whistle like this, but horses are the first known large mammal to have a knack for it. They're also the only animals known to be able to whistle through their voice boxes while they sing.

"Knowing that a ‘whinny’ is not just a ‘whinny’ but that it is actually composed of two different fundamental frequencies that are created by two different mechanisms is exciting," said Alisa Herbst with Rutgers University's Equine Science Center, of the study in an email.

A big lingering question is how horses' two-toned calls came to be. Wild Przewalski’s horses can do something similar, as can elks. But more distant horse relatives like donkeys and zebras can't make the high-pitched sounds.

The two-toned whinnies could help horses convey multiple messages at the same time. The differently pitched neighs may help them express a more complex range of feelings when socializing, said study author Elodie Mandel-Briefer with the University of Copenhagen.

"They can express emotions in these two dimensions," Mandel-Briefer said.

Varieties

Two Holy Mosques Exhibition Welcomes Visitors for Founding Day Celebrations

The exhibition is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 a.m - SPA
The exhibition is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 a.m - SPA
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Two Holy Mosques Exhibition Welcomes Visitors for Founding Day Celebrations

The exhibition is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 a.m - SPA
The exhibition is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 a.m - SPA

In celebration of the Kingdom’s Founding Day, the Exhibition of the Two Holy Mosques Architecture in Makkah is welcoming visitors to explore a comprehensive historical journey.

The exhibition presents the evolution of the Two Holy Mosques through rare artifacts, historical photographs, and documentation of successive Saudi expansions, according to SPA.

The halls highlight the Kingdom’s long-standing dedication to serving the Two Holy Mosques. They combine heritage and modern technology to present the architectural development of Islam’s holiest sites.

The exhibition is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 a.m.

Varieties

Photos Show Filming of Ramadan TV Drama Series on the War-scarred Streets of Syria's Aleppo

Extras stand by as a television crew films an episode of the TV series “Al-Souriyoun al-Aada” (“The Syrian Enemies”), based on a novel of the same name that was banned under Bashar Assad, along a transformed street in central Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Extras stand by as a television crew films an episode of the TV series “Al-Souriyoun al-Aada” (“The Syrian Enemies”), based on a novel of the same name that was banned under Bashar Assad, along a transformed street in central Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
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Photos Show Filming of Ramadan TV Drama Series on the War-scarred Streets of Syria's Aleppo

Extras stand by as a television crew films an episode of the TV series “Al-Souriyoun al-Aada” (“The Syrian Enemies”), based on a novel of the same name that was banned under Bashar Assad, along a transformed street in central Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Extras stand by as a television crew films an episode of the TV series “Al-Souriyoun al-Aada” (“The Syrian Enemies”), based on a novel of the same name that was banned under Bashar Assad, along a transformed street in central Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Ramadan in the Arab world is a month of fasting and prayer by day — and television by night. For decades, families have gathered after the iftar, the evening meal that breaks the daytime fast, to follow the season’s highly anticipated drama series, produced specially to air during the Islamic holy month.

In the week before Ramadan, a television crew in central Aleppo was busy preparing one of those productions, with a battered street in the historic city transformed into a scene from decades past.

Lamees Al-Ali, an extra in the series, poses for a photograph during the filming of an episode of the TV series “Al-Souriyoun al-Aada” (“The Syrian Enemies”), based on a novel of the same name that was banned under Bashar Assad, along a transformed street in central Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Classic 1970s cars lined the curb. A horse-drawn cart rolled through the frame. A vendor in a red tarboush, a brimless cone-shaped hat, stood beside steaming pots of sahlep — a sweet, thickened milk drink flavored with spices and associated with winter evenings.

Just outside the camera’s view stood a stark reminder of Syria's more recent history. Collapsed buildings and damaged facades testified to Aleppo’s role as a major battleground during the country's civil war. However, with costumes, props and careful framing, the production temporarily carried the street back to what it portrays as a more innocent era, according to The AP news.

A television crew films an episode of the TV series “Al-Souriyoun al-Aada” (“The Syrian Enemies”), based on a novel of the same name that was banned under Bashar Assad, along a transformed street in central Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026.(AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

The series being filmed — “Al-Souriyoun al-Aada,” or “The Syrian Enemies” — is based on a novel that was banned during the rule of former President Bashar Assad. The story examines painful chapters of Syria’s past, including the 1982 events in Hama, when government forces crushed an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood, killing or disappearing an estimated 10,000 to 40,000 people and leaving the city in ruins.

As filming continues into Ramadan, the production reflects both a cherished seasonal tradition and Syria’s complex, layered history.