US senators propose NO FAKES Act to protect artists from deepfakes

A bipartisan group of US Senators have formally introduced the NO FAKES Act, a long overdue bill aiming to protect individuals’ voices and visual likenesses from being exploited by AI companies.

In an official one pager of the bill, the Nurture Originals Foster Arts and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act, is a "bipartisan bill that would protect the voice and visual likeness of all individuals from unauthorised computer-generated recreations from generative artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies".

Senators Chris Coons (Democrat, Delaware), Marsha Blackburn (Republican, Tennessee ), Amy Klobuchar (Democrat, Minnesota), and Thom Tillis (Republican, North Carolina) introduced the act on Wednesday (July 31st) after first releasing a discussion draft this past October.

The one pager said the bill aims to hold individuals or companies liable if they produce an unauthorised digital replica of an individual in a performance.

It also has a motion to hold platforms liable for hosting an unauthorised digital replica if the platform has actual knowledge of the fact that the replica was not authorised by the individual depicted.

The proposal also planned to exclude certain digital replicas from coverage based on recognised First Amendment protections of free speech, press and right to petition government.

There was an added clause that the bill was designed to largely preempt State laws addressing digital replicas "to create a workable national standard".

In citing the need for this legislation one high profile example the bill used was 'Heart on My Sleeve', an AI generated song which used replicas of the voices of Drake and The Weeknd, and quickly amassed hundreds of thousands of listens on streaming sites before it was identified as fake.

The song was later submitted to the 2023 Grammys.

The document also cited  an AI-generated version of Tom Hanks was used in advertisements for a dental plan that he never appeared in or otherwise endorsed.

There was also concerns of the use of AI on creating replicas of non celebrities, with the bill citing a principal at a Baltimore, Maryland high school was framed as a racist by an AI-generated recording of his voice as an example.