At the heart of the Sundance Institute has always been a commitment to the artist’s voice. As we navigate a transformative era for storytelling, we are launching a new, product-agnostic AI Literacy Initiative for filmmakers.

Hosted globally on Sundance Collab, this initiative provides free, accessible resources to help our community make informed, responsible choices about whether and how to co-exist with AI tools—always keeping human artists at the center of the creative ecosystem.

Key Features of the Program

• Free Educational Content & Events: Practical guides and discussions hosted on our Sundance Collab AI Literacy Hub.
  
  
• AI Creators Fellowship: A year-long program run by the Institute’s Artist Accelerator Program to support filmmakers diving deep into these tools.
  
  
• AI Literacy Alliance: A coalition of foundational member organizations sharing our values and working together to support the collective community.

Beyond the mechanics of the tools, we are tackling the systemic and ethical challenges AI presents head-on. Our materials address critical issues like intellectual property protection, fair compensation, algorithmic bias, and the environmental footprint of large-scale AI models. We believe AI should serve as a tool that expands technical potential without displacing the irreplaceable emotional depth and lived experiences of human creators.

A Note From Our Community

As our world transforms before us, we storytellers must act as informed stewards of our craft. Whether you are a curious artist who wants to harness the potential of these tools or a concerned citizen wanting to push back against the worst possibilities, a strong AI literacy will be necessary to meaningfully engage. This will require not only a strong technical education, but also a deeply contextual and ethical understanding of this technology and the many ways it will intersect with all aspects of our lives. While knowledge will bring us power, I fear that without pairing that knowledge with a deeply human wisdom, we may not be able to collectively steer our industry through this technological transition in a way that allows our filmmakers, our audiences, and our stories to continue to thrive. This is why I’m excited that Sundance Institute is spearheading this AI Literacy Initiative, as they have been an organization that has always understood the importance of nurturing that humanity in every filmmaker they work with." 

– Daniel Kwan, Academy Award-winning filmmaker & Sundance Institute Lab Fellow

Join us on Sundance Collab to begin this journey together.

AI Literacy Alliance (AILA)

Mission

Through education, collaboration, and shared resources, the AI Literacy Alliance supports film and media creators with the knowledge needed to navigate AI tools and ethics, while preserving human creativity and artistic independence. 

Vision

The AI Literacy Alliance will prepare creators to navigate the impact of AI on tools and filmmaking practices as well as empower creators to become voices and stakeholders in the greater LLM models ecosystem.

Values

• Empowerment: We empower film and media creators to make informed decisions about how AI can be used to impact their projects and careers. We believe that informed decisions regarding whether to use AI on a creative project should be made by all stakeholders.

• Transparency: We are committed to providing transparent information about tools, practices, and ethical considerations regarding how LLM models are trained on pre-existing human creativity, much of it copyrighted.
  

• Responsibility: We are committed to providing education around basic levels of competency and care when prompting an LLM, to ensure social and environmental responsibility of AI usage.
  

• Human Centered: The protection and amplification of human creativity is our core belief. We believe that all humans whose creative work has been, knowingly or unknowingly, used to train LLMs, must receive attribution, legal protection, and fair compensation.
  

• Equity: We ensure creators from all backgrounds have access to AI literacy resources, interfaces, knowledge, and opportunities.