RSL Media Launches, Centering Human Consent in the AI Era

Cate Blanchett co-founds new public benefit nonprofit providing a human consent framework for AI’s use of creative work, name, image and likeness.

RSL Human Consent Standard launches today and a free, public registry launches in June to allow anyone to declare their AI permissions.

Advocates and supporters include Javier Bardem, George Clooney, Viola Davis, Tom Hanks, Dame Helen Mirren, Steven Soderbergh, Kristen Stewart, Meryl Streep, Dame Emma Thompson, Creative Artists Agency and the Music Artists Coalition.

LOS ANGELES, May 12, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Every person should have the right to decide how their work, personal identity, characters and marks are used by artificial intelligence. Today, RSL Media launches as a public benefit non-profit built around a simple human principle: consent must come first. AI systems are using human expression, creative work and human likeness without consent. RSL Media addresses this problem by turning human consent into a signal that machines can read.

“AI technologies are expanding rampantly, essentially unchecked and unregulated. In order for humans to remain in front of these technologies, consent must be the first consideration,” says Cate Blanchett, award-winning actress, producer and RSL Media co-founder. “RSL Media is a simple, effective and free solutions-based technology for facilitating and activating consent. It’s also the industry’s first practical solution where people everywhere, not just public figures, can assert control over how their work is used by AI.”

“AI can’t respect rights it can’t see, and this means human consent is virtually invisible in this new digital era. The right to decide whether AI can use your work or identity should not be reserved for only those who can afford lawyers or have platforms big enough to be heard, it is a basic human right,” says Nikki Hexum, co-founder and CEO of RSL Media. “RSL Media was created to make those choices clear so people can set their own terms, responsible companies can honor them and policymakers have a practical way to make AI protections work in the real world.”

RSL Media allows people to determine how their identity and creative works may be used by AI systems: allowed, allowed with terms or prohibited. These choices function like a traffic light. In addition, RSL Media provides AI systems a universal way to understand consent, solving the problem created by complex rights systems.

Starting today, anyone can go to rslmedia.org to:
Reserve a Consent ID: Be among the first to secure an RSL Media Consent ID and share support on social media.
Learn about the Standard: Access the open consent standard and understand how permissions can be declared in a way AI systems can read.
Become a Trusted Partner: Organizations across entertainment, media, technology, policy and rights management can request to partner with RSL Media to help shape the next phase of the standard.

In June, RSL Media will launch the free public registry. At that point, anyone, even those without technical knowledge, can:
Register: Verify their identity through rslmedia.org.
Declare: Set permissions for their identity and creative works.
Encode: Permissions get translated into machine-readable signals.
Verify: AI systems and platforms check the RSL Media registry before using protected rights.

RSL Media gives everyone a way to declare AI permissions across four rights areas: work, identity, characters and marks. For work this includes songs, films, books, screenplays, art, photography and creative works. For identity this includes name, image, likenesses, voice, movement and other signature or personal attributes. For characters this includes protected fictional characters, including names, visual depictions, voices, portrayals and distinctive traits. For marks this includes logos, trademarks, jewelry and fashion design, trade dress and other brand identifiers.

Artists and Technologists Among Co-Creators of New Human Consent Standard
“Today, rights information is fragmented across contracts, databases and private systems, leaving creators speaking in terms that AI platforms cannot easily interpret or comply with,” says James Everingham, co-author of the RSL Media standard, CEO of Guild.ai and former head of engineering at Instagram. “RSL Media provides a critical infrastructure layer by translating consent and usage rights into a format that can work across systems, for both individuals and AI.”

“Bringing artists, performers and creators into the consent solution that RSL Media provides is essential to protecting rights, recognizing the value of human creativity and enabling innovation responsibly,” says Jacqueline Sabec, co-author of the RSL Media standard and partner at King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano, LLP.

“Creativity is the most precious and irreplaceable expression of what makes us human. It is born of our lived experience, emotion and vision. In this extraordinary moment of technological change, we have a duty to protect it, and to protect the artists now, and in the future, who dedicate their lives to it and the pursuit of inventing the unknown,” says Francesca Amfitheatrof, co-author of the RSL Media standard, jewelry designer and former artistic director of watches and jewelry at Louis Vuitton and former design director of Tiffany & Company.

Voices of Support
“Of course artists and cultural creatives will inevitably be involved with AI. At the moment, however, AI is merely stealing from us all. This is an urgent and essential initiative. It’s also eminently doable, so let’s do it without delay,” says Dame Emma Thompson.

“RSL Media has a solution to a very serious problem, and their solution is simple, transparent, and resistant to manipulation. The sooner this independent standard is adopted, the better for all involved,” says Steven Soderbergh.

“Artists have always been inspired by those who went before them, that is how culture develops and reflects the society that it is born in. Every artist knows there is an absolute divide between inspiration and imitation. The one is an extension of the imagination, and the other a block to imagination, at the same time being crass theft,” says Dame Helen Mirren.

“CAA is deeply committed to protecting the creative rights and identities of artists in this ever-evolving digital landscape. The launch of RSL Media represents a ground-breaking step toward empowering artists with clear, enforceable control over how their work and likenesses are used by AI technologies. By providing a standardized consent framework, RSL Media not only safeguards our clients’ intellectual property, but also ensures they receive the credit and compensation they deserve in the AI economy," says Kevin Huvane, Co-Chairman, Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

"Music artists have spent the last few years watching their voices, songs and likenesses get vacuumed into AI systems without permission, without credit and without compensation. RSL Media flips the script. By turning consent into a signal that machines can actually read and respect, it gives every creator a practical way to set the terms for how their work is used. The Music Artists Coalition is proud to support RSL Media and the principle at its core: human creativity deserves human consent," says Ron Gubitz, Executive Director, Music Artists Coalition.

About RSL Media
RSL Media is a public benefit non-profit technology organization that has filed for 501(c)(3) status, offering an open rights standard for the AI era. Its mission is to protect human creativity by making consent, credit and compensation clear, machine-readable and usable at scale. The RSL Media human consent standard and forthcoming RSL Media registry will allow individuals, artists, rights-holders and authorized representatives to define how their works, identity, likeness, voice, characters, marks and related rights may or may not be used by AI systems.

The RSL Media standard builds on the Really Simple Licensing (RSL) standard, an open protocol that defines machine-readable AI usage rights and licensing terms for content. RSL Media brings that same open, machine-readable architecture to the protection of creative rights, identity, likeness, voice, characters, marks and other human-centered rights in the AI era. RSL Media is co-founded by Cate Blanchett, Nikki Hexum, Doug Leeds and Eckart Walther.

For more information about RSL Media, the RSL Media Governance Committees or how to participate, visit rslmedia.org.

Press Contact:
Amber McCann
press@rslmedia.org

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