By Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles

Academy Awards organisers have issued new rules to clarify that acting and writing must be ‌performed by humans and not artificial intelligence ‌to be eligible for the movie industry’s highest honours.

The changes from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apply to submissions for the ‌next Oscars ‌ceremony, scheduled ⁠for March 2027.

Generative AI has ​raised alarm in the movie and TV business as workers fear studios will use the technology to replace human workers to lower costs.

The debut ⁠last year ‌of an ​AI-generated “actress” dubbed Tilly Norwood, and its producer’s ​boasts of interest ‌from studio executives, added to concerns and ​sparked a backlash from the SAG-AFTRA actors union.

Under the Academy’s new rules, filmmakers can ​use ​AI tools but ​a “synthetic” actor such as Norwood ‌would be ineligible for an Oscar, the group said in a statement.

The Academy said screenplays must be “human-authored” to be considered.

The rules state the ​Academy can request additional information to verify submissions were ⁠created by humans.

The Academy said “only roles credited in the film’s legal billing and demonstrably performed by humans with their consent will be considered eligible.”

Major changes were also announced to the International Feature Film category.

Until now, there could only be one official selection per country in the international feature category.

Under the new rules, a non-English language film can also be submitted for consideration by winning a “qualifying award” at an international film festival such as the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlin International Film Festival or the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Another change is that the film itself, rather than the submitting country, will be credited as the nominee and the director’s name and the film’s title will be engraved on the statuette.

In the acting categories, actors can now be nominated for more than one role if they receive a sufficiently high number of votes. Previously, an actor could not receive multiple nominations in a single category for roles in different films.

In other categories, dual nominations were already permitted. For example, in 2001 Steven Soderbergh was nominated for Best Director for Erin Brockovich and Traffic. He won it for Traffic.

–with DPA