Guardians of AI: Scott Mann of Flawless AI On How AI Leaders Are Keeping AI Safe, Ethical, Responsible, and True
An Interview With Yitzi Weiner
Empowering individuals with accessible, democratized creative tools is key to making this possible. By ensuring technology benefits everyone, not just a select few, we can unlock new ideas, amplify unheard voices, and drive greater inclusion. This movement could inspire a more equitable, innovative world.
As AI technology rapidly advances, ensuring its responsible development and deployment has become more critical than ever. How are today’s AI leaders addressing safety, fairness, and accountability in AI systems? What practices are they implementing to maintain transparency and align AI with human values? To address these questions, we had the pleasure of interviewing Scott Mann, a seasoned Hollywood director, writer, producer, and Founder and Co-CEO of Flawless AI. With over 25 years of experience in filmmaking and a lifelong passion for science, innovation, and storytelling, Scott is pioneering the use of ethical AI tools in filmmaking.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I’d been obsessed with films and filmmaking from the youngest age, growing up in a run down North East town, on a diet of 80s and then 90’s movies. I loved the original storytelling and the power of escapism and wanted to tell stories of my own. Before I had access to a camera, I’d draw short flickbooks, then moved into early 2D computer animation, and then at age 12 , finally got access to a video camera and it changed my world.
I would make endless short films with my family and friends, often inspired by the emerging technical innovations coming out of Hollywood’s CGI revolution. I would combine my own scrappy computer animations into my films, to try and make new stories and experiment with new filmmaking techniques.
My parents nurtured my love for film and storytelling from a young age. My mother, in particular, played a huge role, helping me create short films with special effects and driving me to distant film festivals across the country. One of my early projects, an homage to Terminator 2, (‘The Sneeze’) managed to win at various film festivals and lay the foundations for my first job in TV. That experience cemented my passion for storytelling and my fascination with using technology to push creative boundaries.
I’ve always seen film as a unique way to explore identity, culture, and the human condition, something no other medium can achieve. For centuries, stories have shaped us, and I see cinema as the most technically advanced form of art, that can reach the widest audience with the most powerful experience. This passion led me to co-found Flawless AI, where I’m focused on pioneering and integrating ethical AI advances into filmmaking. By creating tools like the Artistic Rights Treasury (A.R.T.), we’re empowering creators, protecting artists’ rights, and making storytelling more accessible. For me, filmmaking isn’t just a career. It’s a way to make a meaningful, positive impact on the world.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for, who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have support from amazing people throughout my journey. Early on, my parents and brothers encouraged me, and helped me to pursue filmmaking. My parents spent their spare time and resources carting me around all over England to go from festival to festival and helped explore my passion for bringing stories to life.
But more than anyone, I’m most grateful to my wife, Sarah, who has joined me on my journey of madness. She’s been by my side for over 20 years and has shown endless patience and strength as I’ve pursued a passion which often can be incredibly demanding, but her unwavering support and belief in what I do have made all the difference. Building a family and our lives together, has been the foundation of all my pursuits and it’s what I am most proud of.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Determination: Filmmaking is a tough industry, full of setbacks and endless rejection. Early in my career, after six years of sacrifice, I’d finally finished my first film (The Tournament). While it was well-received, a series of events prevented its release in my home country, which was devastating. However, I learned to embrace failure as a stepping stone to growth.
- Problem-solving: Whether it’s fixing a script or repairing something at home, I’ve always been drawn to solving challenges. That same mindset drives my work with AI tools in filmmaking today.
- Bravery: Creative risks are necessary in storytelling, but they’re often limited by financial constraints. The idea of using AI powered tools to lower costs and expand creative possibilities excites me because it allows room to risk originality.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about how AI leaders are keeping AI safe and responsible. To begin, can you list three things that most excite you about the current state of the AI industry?
AI is transforming the creative landscape in three key ways:
- Unlocking creativity: AI is creating new tools that are set to revolutionize filmmaking, making budgets go so much further and enabling filmmakers to take more risks and tell fresh, original stories.
- Democratizing access: AI makes filmmaking more accessible, allowing new voices to enter the industry and thrive.
- Cross-cultural storytelling: AI-powered localization can break down language barriers, fostering greater cultural understanding by truly immersing viewers in diverse perspectives.
Conversely, can you tell us three things that most concern you about the industry? What must be done to alleviate those concerns?
The key is to use AI responsibly by addressing three critical risks:
- Protecting Artists’ Rights: Without safeguards, AI could harm the creative economy. Models trained on unlicensed data or performances used without consent undermine creators’ ownership and livelihoods. Protecting artists’ rights is not just ethical but essential for sustaining creativity.
- Tools need to be built FOR creatives, to enhance their work and not to replace it. AI can underpin incredible tools, but algorithms that spit out meaningless non-human content are wasteful and pointless.
- Ensuring Data Integrity: The quality and progression of all AI systems is underpinned by the quality and accuracy of the data which is used to train it. Dirty, badly labelled data will poison systems and AI development for years to come, whereas clean, high quality, verified data will grow the best AI systems and serve as a reliable ally for creators.
AI is a tool, not a replacement for humanity. When done right, it empowers creators while respecting their rights and maintaining trust. Striking the right balance is essential to ensure progress doesn’t come at the cost of the creative economy or human connection.
As a CEO leading an AI-driven organization, how do you embed ethical principles into your company’s overall vision and long-term strategy? What specific executive-level decisions have you made to ensure your company stays ahead in developing safe, transparent, and responsible AI technologies?
Our mission is to empower creativity, safeguard artistic integrity, and respect the contributions of all stakeholders in filmmaking. This ethos guides every decision we make, including the development of the Artistic Rights Treasury (A.R.T.), a platform that protects artists’ intellectual property and ensures their digital likenesses are used ethically and with consent. By combining tools like AI-based facial mapping and localization technology with a steadfast commitment to transparency and fairness, we’re showing how AI can enhance the creative process without undermining the rights or contributions of actors, directors, and other industry professionals.
AI’s potential in filmmaking is transformative, but it must be implemented responsibly. Misuse risks alienating the very people it seeks to help, while responsible adoption can create a sustainable, profitable future for the industry. By reducing reshoots, streamlining processes, and empowering filmmakers to achieve their vision, our approach proves that AI isn’t a replacement for human creativity. Instead, it’s a tool to amplify it. With artists and filmmakers in control, we’re building trust in AI as a force for good, ensuring ethical innovation remains at the heart of our strategy.
Have you ever faced a challenging ethical dilemma related to AI development or deployment? How did you navigate the situation while balancing business goals and ethical responsibility?
At Flawless, ethical principles are embedded in everything we do. Our Artistic Rights Treasury (A.R.T.) platform ensures that AI tools respect consent and protect creators’ rights.
For example, when adjusting dialogue in post production, AI tools offer a cost effective, flexible way to deliver on creative intents while maintaining original performances without demanding full scale reshoots. To do this requires a specific agreement up front or at the time this virtual reshoot takes place. Handling this transparently creates the fairness and protection needed by both individual and corporate creators and rights holders.
Whether using industry level agreements, or negotiated terms, consent for AI tools needs to be tracked and associated with the relevant content to ensure those terms can be carried out.
Many people are worried about the potential for AI to harm humans. What must be done to ensure that AI stays safe?
Companies must commit to using high-quality, structured data from the outset, as this forms the foundation of reliable AI systems. Many current models are built on flawed datasets, which compromises their performance and introduces ethical risks. Poorly trained models or reliance on unverified datasets can lead to “model collapse,” where systems become inaccurate or biased over time. Addressing this issue requires significant effort but is critical to avoid the proliferation of bad data and unreliable AI.
Despite huge advances, AIs still confidently hallucinate, giving incorrect answers. In addition, AIs will produce incorrect results if they are trained on untrue or biased information. What can be done to ensure that AI produces accurate and transparent results?
To build AI responsibly, organizations must focus on creating models that are transparent, ethically designed, and continuously monitored. This includes establishing rigorous training processes, adhering to legal and privacy standards, and embedding safeguards that allow for human oversight and control. While it’s a big undertaking, ensuring that AI is built on clean, licensed data and developed responsibly is essential to creating systems that are both effective and safe for society.
Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are your “Five Things Needed to Keep AI Safe, Ethical, Responsible, and True”? Please share a story or an example for each.
The crux of this question centers around AI done right. This encompasses several key points:
- Serve the human creative/keep art human. Flawless differentiates itself through its controllable TOOLS, specifically built for key creatives (Actors, Editors and Directors). Focusing on tools that transform the filmmaking process, by enhancing creative control and not replacing creation itself.
- Consent-driven tools: AI solutions should empower creators by respecting their rights and ensuring transparency. While developing our dialogue localization tool, we partnered with actors’ guilds to ensure their rights were protected. Our ethical platform (ART) allows artists full control and consent to their own artistic material, so they can extract value through their work.
- Clean data: AI systems must be trained on high-quality, licensed data to avoid biases and inaccuracies. During the development of Flawless AI’s facial mapping tools, we encountered various datasets with questionable origins. Instead of taking the easy route and using these, we built new datasets from scratch, collaborating with industry professionals to ensure consent and compliance. This approach was more time-consuming but reinforced trust in our AI solutions.
- Responsible leadership: Ethical decisions must come from the top, prioritizing long-term impact over short-term gains. Early in Flawless AI’s development, there was pressure to create broader, generalized models that could quickly dominate multiple aspects of the entertainment pipeline. However, we chose to focus narrowly on cinematic quality human performances, ensuring every solution adhered to ethical principles, respected creators’ rights, and aligned with our mission to enhance, not replace, human creativity.
- Amplifying creativity: AI should enhance human creativity, not replace it, by providing tools that empower artists and storytellers.
Looking ahead, what changes do you hope to see in industry-wide AI governance over the next decade?
Transparency and accountability are essential. The industry must balance protecting intellectual property with fostering innovation. Policymakers and companies need to ensure that the benefits of AI are distributed equitably, rather than concentrated in the hands of a few.
What do you think will be the biggest challenge for AI over the next decade, and how should the industry prepare?
Protecting intellectual property (IP) and ensuring the equitable distribution of AI’s benefits are critical to the industry’s future. Without strong safeguards, creators’ rights risk being eroded, destabilizing the creative economy and discouraging innovation. Building AI systems on clean, licensed data ensures creators retain control over their work while enabling sustainable growth. At the same time, it’s essential to ensure AI benefits individuals, not just large corporations or the wealthiest players.
The current trajectory of unfettered capitalism in AI development threatens to concentrate power and profit, amplifying inequalities. To address this, governments and industry leaders must prioritize transparency, fairness, and accountability. By enforcing policies that protect rights and empower creators, the industry can strike a balance between innovation and equity, fostering a thriving ecosystem that works for everyone.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Storytelling has the power to bridge divides, foster empathy, and connect people across cultures by sharing diverse voices and breaking down barriers. It celebrates differences while uncovering common ground.
Empowering individuals with accessible, democratized creative tools is key to making this possible. By ensuring technology benefits everyone, not just a select few, we can unlock new ideas, amplify unheard voices, and drive greater inclusion. This movement could inspire a more equitable, innovative world.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Guardians of AI: Scott Mann of Flawless AI On How AI Leaders Are Keeping AI Safe, Ethical… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.