During it’s next shareholders meeting, The Walt Disney Company will need to include shareholder proposals from the AFL-CIO Equity Index Funds that aim to provide transparency in how the company uses artificial intelligence, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
- It was determined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Disney will need to address the proposal from the AFL-CIO, which requests that Disney “prepare and publicly disclose on the Company’s website a transparency report that explains the Company’s use of Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) in its business operations and the Board’s role in overseeing AI usage, and sets forth any ethical guidelines that the company has adopted regarding its use of AI.”
- Disney has planned to leave the proposal off of their proxy statement, saying it “concerns their ordinary operations.”
- The SEC disagreed however and told Disney that “in our view, the Proposal transcends ordinary business matters and does not seek to micromanage the Company.”
- The decision from the SEC means Disney will have to include the proposals on their upcoming proxy statement and shareholders will have the chance to vote on whether or not the company should report on their use of AI.
- AI has of course been a hot-button issue in Hollywood lately and was a focal point of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year.
- The proposal from the AFL-CIO was initially announced in October and argues that “the AI dehumanization of the American workforce threatens the very framework of the nation’s economy and endangers the existence of the already dwindling middle class.”