New senate bill proposes to punish makers of AI-generated deepfakes

Unauthorized artificial intelligence-powered recreations of people’s voices and images would be banned under a proposed bill by a bipartisan group of United States senators.

In an Oct. 11 press

The track “Heart on my sleeve” by anonymous TikTok user “ghostwriter977” used AI vocals of artists Drake and The Weeknd and went viral earlier this year, garnering millions of views before it was struck from the platform.

*Multiple paid services offer AI tools to emulate the voices of musicians, actors and public figures. Source: voicify.ai*

AI-generated likenesses have also been a friction point in the Hollywood actor strikes and negotiations — with the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union backing the proposal.

THIS is the future: AI protections for voice and likeness, an invaluable tool for performers.

Thank you to Senator @ChrisCoons, Senator @MarshaBlackburn, @SenAmyKlobuchar and @SenThomTillis for driving the NO FAKES Act. https://t.co/g9fiKCbHHD

— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) October 12, 2023

On Oct. 11, SAG-AFTRA said negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) broke down, claiming the latter refused to “protect performers from being replaced by AI,” among other reasons.

In a statement the same day, the AMPTP said “it is clear that the gap between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great, and conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction.”

On Sept. 27, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) ended its strike after nearly five months following the union reaching a deal with the AMPTP on AI usage in writer’s rooms, along with higher wages and fairer contracts.

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