Photo Credit: State of California
California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed two bills that require the consent of actors and performers for the use of their digital likeness. SAG-AFTRA calls the protections a big step forward.
The two bills are designed to help actors and performers protect their digital likenesses in audio and visual productions, including those who are deceased. The legislation is designed to help ensure the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other digital media technologies in entertainment by giving workers more protections.
“We continue to wade through uncharted territory when it comes to how AI and digital media is transforming the entertainment industry, but our North Star has always been to protect workers,” the CA Governor Newsom said during the signing ceremony. “This legislation ensures the industry can continue thriving while strengthening protections for workers and how their likeness can or cannot be used.”
“It is a momentous day for SAG-AFTRA members and everyone else because the AI protections we fought so hard for last year are now expanded upon by California law thanks to the legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom,” adds SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher. “They say as California goes, so goes the nation!”
AB 2602 requires contracts to specify the use of AI-generated digital replicas of a performer’s voice or likeness, and the performer must be professionally represented in negotiating the contract. This will help protect performers’ and actors’ careers, ensuring that AI is not used to replicate their voice or likeness without permission.
AB 1836 prohibits commercial use of digital replicas of deceased performers in films, TV shows, video games, audiobooks, sound recordings, and more—without first obtaining the consent of those performers’ estates. It aims to curb unauthorized uses of digital replicas, encompassing any audiovisual work or sound recordings linked to performances delivered by artists when they were alive.
It’s worth noting that under AB 1836, Drake’s use of the AI Tupac lines in his recent diss track would be illegal. Drake did not have the Tupac Shakur estate’s permission for those AI generated lines when he dropped them.
