Senators Introduce Long-Awaited Bill to Protect Artists From AI Deepfakes

A bipartisan group of senators officially introduced a long-anticipated bill on Wednesday designed to protect peoples’ voices and visual likenesses from being exploited with artificial intelligence re-creations without their permission.

Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Thom Tillis introduced the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act on Wednesday, about eight months after first introducing a discussion draft of that bill last October.

NO FAKES is similar to the NO AI Fraud Act introduced in Congress earlier this year and establishes increased protections to individuals’ right of publicity by strengthening their legal claims over the unauthorized use of their voice and likenesses. As the bill notes, this right doesn’t expire when someone dies and instead will pass down to an individual’s heirs or the executor of their estate.

The need for virtual likeness protections against AI has only been further underscored since the NO Fakes Discussion draft, with cases like the controversy around OpenAI using a voice “eerily similar” to Scarlett Johansson’s after the actress turned down an offer to have her voice used for conversational AI software the ChatGPT maker was developing. Deepfake pornography has become a major concern as well, with both celebrities and students falling victim to the disturbing trend. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is taking the issue head-on, and the bill she introduced to fight it unanimously passed the Senate last week.

AI remains a particularly hot-button topic in the music industry, and AI voice clones are being used more frequently in recordings. That’s happened both with an artist’s permission, such as when Randy Travis used the tech to release his first song since suffering a stroke a decade ago, and without, like when Drake used Tupac’s voice in his Kendrick Lamar diss track “Taylor Made Freestyle.” Drake — who himself had his voice lifted last year in the anonymous songwriter Ghostwriter977’s song “Heart on My Sleeve” — removed “Taylor Made Freestyle” after the Tupac Shakur estate sent a cease and desist.

The industry has voiced cautious support over the use of AI for music creation, but only when it’s done so with rights holders’ permission. The major record labels sued AI music generators Suno and Udio in June, alleging the generators used thousands of unauthorized songs of their artists to train their software.

The NO FAKES introduction drew significant support from the music industry, with the Human Artistry Campaign, the RIAA, the NMPAm and the Recording Academy all voicing their approval on Wednesday.

“The Human Artistry Campaign applauds Senators Coons, Blackburn, Klobuchar and Tillis for crafting strong legislation establishing a fundamental right putting every American in control of their own voices and faces against a new onslaught of highly realistic voice clones and deepfakes,” Human Artistry Campaign Senior Advisor Dr. Moiya McTier said in a statement. “The NO FAKES Act will help protect people, culture and art — with clear protections and exceptions for the public interest and free speech.”

The bill received kudos from some entertainment figures as well, including SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and the heads of the talent agencies CAA, UTA, and WME.

“In the coming decade, legislation like the NO FAKES ACT is desperately needed to protect Americans from being victimized by technology that can replicate our image and voice,” Drescher said. “Thank you Sens. Blackburn, Coons, Klobuchar, and Tillis for defending human rights by introducing the NO FAKES Act. People and communities must be protected in the face of innovation.”