JOHN YANG: The Oscars are tonight and as is often the case, there's a subplot of controversy this year.

It's over the use of artificial intelligence in the production of a number of nominated films, some of them in the best picture category.

Katey Rich is the awards editor at The Ankler, which covers the entertainment industry.

She's also the host of the podcast Prestige Junkie.

So, Katie, what are we talking about here?

What sorts of things are in nominated films that used AI?

KATEY RICH, Editor, The Ankler: We're talking about so many different things, which is what makes it such a complicated issue in the case of some of this year's Oscar nominees, you've got two films, the "Brutalist" and "Emilia Perez," which used a technology called respond feature to alter the way that the actors voices sounded with the actor's permission.

You've also got in the "Complete Unknown," they use a different AI tool to make a stunt double's face look more like the star, Timothee Chalamet.

So they're all kind of small, subtle things, the kind of visual effects tweaks that we've seen in movies for decades and decades.

And now that they're using artificial intelligence to do them, that's where some of the discomfort can come in and make it really hard to understand exactly how these tools are being used.

JOHN YANG: You mentioned the "Brutalist."

The editor said he used this technique to improve the Hungarian accents of some of the characters.

This is a movie about a man who immigrates from Hungary to the United States.

He says that nothing, as you said, nothing was done that hasn't been done for years.

It's only faster and cheaper this way.

So what's the argument here?

KATEY RICH: I mean, I think it's that people feel this inherent distrust of AI and saying, oh, it's helping, you know, enhance a performance in a way an actor couldn't do.

A dialogue replacement technology has been used for decades just in a slightly different way.

And it's faster and cheaper now, as you said.

And I think we're used to things like generative AI which are much more dodgy in terms of replacing creative work.

So there's a tendency to conflate use of that kind of AI in a really precise tool for the kind of generative AI that could replace jobs in Hollywood that people do have real fears about.

It's really about telling the difference between the two.

And that's where these things get kind of muddy.

JOHN YANG: As you said, the AI was a big issue in the actors strike last year.

Are there discussions now about this now that this has arisen?

KATEY RICH: Well, I think the important thing about "The Brutalist" is that the actors Adrian Brody and Felicity Jones, whose voices were used for that, it was done with their permission.

They own the models of their voices.

So it's not like by having done this that they are voiced voices can be replaced by a computer version of them, which was one of the big sticking points in the strikes last year with the actors of saying they don't want a computer to just replace them without their actual permission.

And I think there is discussion now inside the academy about the ways that these productions can disclose whether or not they used AI.

There's been no official ruling on that.

And I think as this technology evolves, it will maybe be harder to tell what's AI and what's not or how useful a disclosure in.

If this is a technology that's growing so quickly, it's going to have to change every year and assess what's people's comfort levels are.

I think it's going to evolve a lot in the coming years.

JOHN YANG: When you say it makes things faster and cheaper, is there concern among the unions in the craft part of the industry who worry about losing jobs over this?

KATEY RICH: Certainly.

And I think that's where the nuances in it come in.

There are so many different uses of AI for technology.

So there's jobs in computer animation, say where someone might have to sit at a computer for hours and hours to hand do something.

Now I can step in and do that.

Or can you save time for somebody so that they can free it up to do something else to do a more creative aspects of their job?

It can cut both ways.

And that's where the unions will step.

And I think some of these studios and production companies can find ways to use it responsibly and not really stifle or eliminate the creative people out of the process.

I think there are enough people who devoted to doing it that way that it could work successfully in the future.

JOHN YANG: You say there's discussions about new rules for the Academy for nominated films.

Do you expect to have new rules by the next season?

KATEY RICH: They do tend to update their rules every year.

The board of governors of the Academy meets after the Oscars, so kind of talk about what went well and what didn't and tweak their process.

I think for people in the visual effects community or in the sound branch of the academy, that's somewhere where AI tools are really starting to play a major role.

And I think they could have options for changing the rules there.

There are way more rules at the Oscars than you could possibly imagine.

They are very complex and not everybody understands them.

But I think the bigger question is, even if they do have rules about it, about disclosure, I don't think they're ever going to ban people from using AI.

And if everyone is going to start using it, if these tools keep adapting and getting cheaper and easier to use, will it really make a difference if everybody is using them?

JOHN YANG: Katey Rich, thank you very much.

KATEY RICH: Thank you so much.