California Bans Unauthorized AI Replicas of Deceased

Legislators in California have been actively creating and overseeing new legislation to control the creation, use, and usage of artificial intelligence AI.

Assembly Bill 1836, which forbids unapproved artificial intelligent-generated duplicates of deceased individuals without prior authorization to preserve performers’ rights and likenesses, was enacted by the California Senate.

The California State Senate’s most recent attempt was Assembly Bill (AB) 1836, which requires the estates of deceased performers to give their express agreement before creating artificial intelligent-generated duplicates. The bill was passed on August 31.

No permission, no copies

Anyone who creates, disseminates, or makes accessible a digital duplicate of a deceased person’s voice or likeness in an audiovisual format without getting express prior consent would be subject to penalties under the measure.

The monetary fine for this offense would be $10,000 or the actual losses incurred by the owner of the rights to the likeness of the deceased celebrity.

A computer-generated, highly accurate digital representation that is easily recognized as the voice or visual resemblance of a human that is incorporated in a sound recording, image, audiovisual production, or transmission is defined in the bill as a “digital replica.”

artificial intelligent modifications that cause the person to perform or seem in ways they have never done before, or changes to the performance’s or appearance’s core characteristics, would be considered offenses.

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, is currently holding the measure and waiting for his decision.

The Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Interactive Media Agreement (SAG-AFTRA), one of the biggest performing arts unions in the country—among other organizations, support the AB 1836 bill, which is expected to succeed.

Hollywood opposes AI

Since the advent of widely used AI models that can produce such copies with ease, the topic of Hollywood actors’ likenesses being replicated by artificial intelligence has become highly contentious.

It was a significant topic of discussion during the 118-day SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023.

SAG-AFTRA’s more recent efforts in April 2024 to strike a preliminary agreement with major record labels against artificial intelligence exploitation further demonstrate the organization’s vigilance against the misuse of its members’ likenesses by artificial intelligence.

Additionally, due to worries about adequate AI protections and “abuse” in the gaming industry, Hollywood performers for video games who are members of the same union went on strike in July.

AI has already been utilized to “resurrect” deceased artists. By using artificial intelligence to extract content from old personal images and home video clips, the British immersive entertainment company Layered Reality was able to create a live performance of Elvis Presley.

AI was used to replicate John Lennon’s vocal track for the Beatles’ final song, “Now and Then,” which Universal Music Group (UMG) released in November 2023.

Currently pending on Governor Newsom’s desk are several laws about artificial intelligence (AI), among them the contentious Senate Bill (SB) 1047, which calls for AI safety and a “kill switch” for rogue artificial intelligence models.