The Ethical Media Production Alliance [EMPA]
Empowering Production Professionals in Times of Uncertainty.
AI technology is transforming multimedia production faster than our workforce can adapt. The EMPA helps creative professionals in multimedia gain access to resources, updated technical training, and work opportunities so they can adapt to volatile changes in the creative job market. Through partnerships with technology and creative industry leaders, we advocate for production that's human-centered, equitable, and accessible to all.
Designing a Future where Creatives and
AI Technologists co-innovate responsibly.
We believe leaders in creative multimedia and AI technology can and must innovate in ways that allow both to coexist without social, cultural, or economic harm. The EMPA facilitates cross-sector dialogue and alliances between:
Creators & AI
Developers
Brands, Studios
& Advertisers
Unions &
Educators
Policy Makers &
Workforce Agencies
- Creatives and technologists are often isolated from one another, with
few neutral spaces to exchange knowledge and agree on ethical conduct.
- The EMPA convenes round-table discussions, acting as a bridge between creative professionals, employers, and AI companies developing these technologies.
- Insights from this dialogue guide collaborative research and shared workforce training and development initiatives. The EMPA helps preserve artistic lineage and ensures creative innovation remains human-centered, equitable, and accessible.
- By facilitating our discussions and partnering to train next-gen creative professionals, the EMPA drives shared values and ethical innovation standards that benefit all persons and entities involved with multimedia production
CODE OF ETHICS
Harm Reduction
The EMPA takes a stance to help leaders reconsider common beliefs that undervalue creative professionals and create unintended consequences. These guiding principles and solutions exist to educate and provide support to professionals to future-proof their careers amidst rapid technology disruption and changes in hiring trends.
1/3 PARTNERS - Corporate Social Responsibility - Equitable Creative Access & Hiring Practices
"If AI can perform creative tasks, it will be adopted broadly as a natural next step in technological progress."
Our Response
No technology use is truly inevitable- it depends on human decisions and values. Past “inevitable” innovations were slowed or shaped by society and public policy. The EMPA can help to safeguard from consequences of over relying on AI tools, that we may not fully understand yet.
Our Solution
The EMPA proposes that ethical adoption of AI can be achieved by:
- Forming strategic alliances between industry leaders and creative professionals by offering strategic advantages through the practice of a shared code of conduct for equitable and inclusive labor.
Technology
Innovations should accelerate artistic opportunity,
not obsolete it.
- Create mutual advantages
for ethical AI use in multimedia
- Useful Feedback for AI Developers & brands who value the creative workforce
- Nonpartisan insights and research to support government regulation of AI
2/3 CREATIVE LABOR - Protecting creatives, brands, and productions through ethical AI practices
Automation has always displaced certain jobs; creative roles are part of the same trend.”
Our Response
Equating creative work to most kinds of manual labor is an oversimplification. Art isn't a routine task; Creativity is fueled by lived experiences and the diverse emotional, social, and cultural perspectives they bring.
Automating “low-level” tasks removes the training ground for new artists, eroding craft, blocking knowledge transfer, and shrinking the future talent pool who would otherwise create accurate, respectful, and progressive depictions.
Our Solution
Emotional intelligence cannot be automated. The EMPA encourages the use of AI for:
- pre-visualization, concept development, and rapid experimentation.
- Integration with industry-standard post-production software for accelerated workflows that don't overshadow human performances, narrative, physical, or digital design otherwise performed by human labor.
Innovation comes with the responsibility to uphold personal freedoms, including the freedom to earn a living from creative endeavors.
- Train a new kind of technically
well-rounded creative professional
- Offer hands-on work opportunities from partners to build portfolios
- Needs-based training for those most vulnerable to job disruption
3/3 PROFESSIONALS - Social, Cultural, and Economic Responsibility to Preserve Artistic Labor
"The labor market will eventually adapt, and humans will find niches alongside AI. This is part of a temporary transition."
Our Response
The transition could span years of pain for displaced workers. There’s no guarantee that the number of new jobs will match those lost - especially if AI systems and the capital behind them concentrate power in fewer hands. We must consider the human cost of this transition. A creative economy that excludes the majority of today’s practitioners is socially damaging.
Our Solution
The EMPA exists because professionals won't adapt on their own without intentional support to prepare for the effects of the industry’s rapid changes.
Our programs create new, deliberately designed career pathways by:
- training entry- to mid-level production, VFX, and animation professionals in traditional workflows, AI tools, marketing, communications, and business management.
- Providing paid work with partnered brands and organizations to build their portfolio.
A new age of technological advancement should come with intentional support for everyone involved.
- Credentialize training for production workflows that ethically implement AI
- Train critical awareness to detect AI-bias and inaccuracy for better risk mitigation
- A source of specialized talent for next-gen multimedia & commercial advertising
- Cross-Industry Think-Tank Discussions that result in favorable production tech integrations and a future-proof talent pool.
- Vocational Training & Job Assistance to match creative employment trends
- Corporate Social Responsibility Solutions: with many advantages for participating
JAMES BRAUN
James Braun is a digital marketer and creative strategist, having led campaigns across various sectors, including education, mental health, sustainability, and fashion. Motivated by the pressures AI places on creative careers, he envisioned this organization as providing practical workforce development, ethical innovation guidance, and real-world work opportunities for entry- to mid-level professionals across the multimedia industry. This alliance helps its partners produce respectful media while supporting the professional development of creative professionals into hybrid production workflows that incorporate AI-assisted previsualization or generated imagery for supporting visual effects.
This alliance is directed by seasoned executives and department heads working in major entertainment studios, TV networks, brands, creative agencies, and publications, and led by its beneficiaries- the communities we serve, including those who've been historically marginalized and may therefore lack adequate platforms or opportunities to gain professional experience in multimedia.
To inquire about available staff positions and information about our broader network, message us at info@empa.org.