The landmark bipartisan bill empowers artists, voice actors & individual victims to fight back against AI deepfakes & voice clones
The Human Artistry Campaign has announced its support of the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act of 2024 (NO FAKES Act) – landmark legislation creating an enforceable new federal intellectual property right allowing victims of nonconsensual deepfakes and voice clones to have them quickly taken down and recover damages.
Building off the original NO FAKES discussion draft released last October and introduced in the US Senate today (Wed, Aug 31st) by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Thom Tillis (D-NC), the bill sets a strong federal baseline protecting all Americans from the invasive AI-generated deepfakes flooding digital platforms today. From young students bullied by nonconsensual sexually explicit replicas of their likenesses to recording artists and performers replicated to sing or perform in expressive works they never created or consented to, the NO FAKES Act provides a powerful and much-needed new weapon in the fight to protect people’s images and voices from being stolen, cloned, and misused.
“As the music community embraces pro-artist, human-first uses of AI, the NO FAKES Act represents a huge step forward for smart, effective, guardrails against irresponsible and unethical uses of these technologies,” says Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Chairmane & CEO Mitch Glazier. “By returning to first principles and creating an enforceable new intellectual property right, the legislation lays the foundation for free market negotiations that will propel both innovation and safety forward in AI, not just for artists but for everyone. RIAA extends its deepest thanks to Senators Coons, Blackburn, Klobuchar, and Tillis and their teams for their persistent leadership in bringing stakeholders together to support this balanced, thoughtful, forward-looking legislation.”
“The Recording Academy thanks Senators Coons, Blackburn, Klobuchar and Tillis for their unwavering leadership in protecting artists, creators, and all individuals,” adds Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason, Jr. “The NO FAKES Act is a major step forward in our fight to ensure that AI is used ethically and equitably to enhance creativity, not to exploit or replace it. This legislation will provide needed certainty and clarity to all stakeholders, and we urge the Senate to act quickly to pass it.”
Taking a thoughtful, measured approach, the legislation preserves existing state causes of action and rights of publicity, including Tennessee’s groundbreaking ELVIS Act. It also contains carefully calibrated exceptions to protect the public’s genuine interest in free speech, open discourse, and creative storytelling – without trampling the underlying need for real, enforceable protection against the vast range of invasive and harmful deepfakes and voice clones.
With the introduction of the Senate NO FAKES Act and the introduction of the Salazar-Dean No AI FRAUD Act in the House of Representatives earlier this year, there is now bipartisan, bicameral momentum to pass these critical protections into federal law.
