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. This initiative is made possible through funding from Google.org, though all programming, curriculum, and editorial control remain solely with the Sundance Institute and its AI Literacy Alliance.

Key Features of the Program

• Free Educational Content & Events: Practical guides and discussions hosted on our Sundance Collab AI Literacy Hub.
  
  
• Emerging Technology 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. Member organizations include: Sundance Institute, Creators Coalition on Artificial Intelligence, Film Independent, GFS, The Gotham, Muslim Public Affairs Council: Hollywood Bureau, National Hispanic Media Council, and the University of Colorado Boulder.
  
  

Beyond the mechanics of the systems, we are tackling the institutional 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. Fundamentally, we believe AI should expand technical potential without displacing the irreplaceable emotional depth and lived experiences of human creators.

A Note from Daniel Kwan, Academy Award-winning Filmmaker and Sundance Institute Lab Fellow
"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 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." 

Join us on Sundance Collab to begin this journey together.

AI Literacy Alliance

Artificial intelligence is an umbrella term for computer systems designed to perform tasks we typically associate with human thinking like understanding language, recognizing images, making decisions, or generating creative content. It is not a single technology, but a broad field encompassing many different approaches, methods, and tools. When someone says "AI," they might mean a chess engine from the 1990s, a navigation app learning traffic patterns, a large language model (LLM) writing text, or an image generator producing visual art. The word covers all of it.

The AI Literacy Alliance saw a need to offer resources to navigate this new and rapidly evolving terrain. Below you can find more information about our mission, vision, values, and the organizations involved. 

Mission

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

Vision

The AI Literacy Alliance envisions a future in which film and media creators are informed participants in the development and use of AI and are able to navigate changing tools and filmmaking practices, shape the conversations that affect their work, and help build a future where technology strengthens not replaces human artistry.

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 interacting with AI systems, to ensure social and environmental responsibility of AI usage.
  
  
• Human Centered: The protection and amplification of human creativity is our core belief. We believe consent, compensation, and transparency - in how AI models are trained and on what data - are non-negotiable prerequisites for ethical AI.
  
  
• Equity: We ensure creators from all backgrounds have access to AI literacy resources, interfaces, knowledge, and opportunities.