A bipartisan group of US Senators has formally introduced the NO FAKES Act, a long overdue bill aiming to protect individuals’ voices and visual likenesses from being exploited by AI companies.
Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) introduced the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act on Wednesday (July 31st) after first releasing a discussion draft this past October.
According to a press release, the NO FAKES Act would “hold individuals or companies liable for damages for producing, hosting, or sharing a digital replica of an individual performing in an audiovisual work, image, or sound recording that the individual never actually appeared in or otherwise approved.”
“Americans from all walks of life are increasingly seeing AI being used to create deepfakes in ads, images, music, and videos without their consent,” said Senator Klobuchar in a statement. “We need our laws to be as sophisticated as this quickly advancing technology. The bipartisan NO FAKES Act will establish rules of the road to protect people from having their voice and likeness replicated through AI without their permission.”
The need for establishing protections against AI has become increasingly apparent since the discussion draft, with examples like OpenAI using a voice “eerily similar” to Scarlett Johansson’s after the actor turned down an offer to provide her voice for ChatGPT.
On the music front, Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group teamed up to sue the AI start-up companies Suno and Udio in June for allegedly using the labels’ recordings to train their AI models without permission “at an almost unimaginable scale.”
Musicians have prominently called for more responsible AI practices, with over 200 artists signing an open letter in April. Hollywood also brought the issue to the forefront during the writers and actors strikes of summer 2023.
As such, the NO FAKES Act has received the backing of groups including the RIAA, MPAA, SAG-AFTRA, Recording Academy, and the major music labels.