More and More States Are Enacting Laws Addressing AI Deepfakes

It’s time to check back in with one of the major new trends in state legislation this year: artificial intelligence (AI). Now, while many states are still busy studying AI issues, and a handful of proposed more comprehensive regulatory regimes, most of the activity enacted into law this year has focused on generative AI tools — so-called “deepfake” or “synthetic” media. And although the concept of a “deepfake” has been around for a few years, AI tools have made it super simple for nearly anyone to create shockingly realistic images, videos, and voice deceptions of any real person. 

Currently, 14 states have enacted laws addressing nonconsensual sexual deepfakes and 10 states have enacted laws to limit the use of deepfakes in political campaigns. Last week, Tennessee became the first state to enact a deepfake law outside these two narrow categories when Governor Lee (R) signed the ELVIS Act (TN HB 2091) into law. 

The Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act’s primary objective is to protect musicians in Tennessee from AI-generated audio mimicking their singing voices. The law does this by amending the Personal Rights Protection Act (PRPA) of 1984 — which itself was originally enacted to protect the rights to Elvis Presley’s music for a period after the singer’s death. The original PRPA prohibited the unauthorized commercial exploitation of a person's name, image, and likeness. 

The new ELVIS Act amends the PRPA in several ways with an eye toward AI-generated media. Notably, the bill itself never specifically mentions artificial intelligence. Instead, the law adds “voice” to the protected property rights that every individual in Tennessee holds and defines it to apply “regardless of whether the sound contains the actual voice or a simulation of the voice of the individual.” Under both the PRPA and the substituted ELVIS Act, individuals (or their heirs) can file a civil lawsuit against anyone who uses a person’s likeness, including voice, without that individual's permission. This includes actual photos, videos, and recordings and those produced by generative AI that depict that individual (even if it’s not actually them). 

This isn’t just a hypothetical concern. Last year, an AI-generated track mimicking the voices of superstar artists Drake and The Weeknd went viral with millions of listens before studios forced its removal from popular online platforms. Recognizing the threat generative AI posed to the established music business, an industry with proud roots in Tennessee, the ELVIS Act was touted by Tennessee Governor Lee even before its official introduction and the bill passed through both legislative chambers unanimously. 

This isn’t the only state entertainment industry-focused bill introduced this session. We highlighted a few of them earlier this year when Governor Lee introduced the ELVIS Act (January’s “Lawmakers Respond to AI-Induced Job Displacement”). Lawmakers in California are looking to protect Hollywood actors (CA AB 459) from generative AI, and New York wants to help protect fashion models from nonconsensual deepfakes (NY SB 2477). States are also broadening their concerns about deepfake impersonations beyond those who make their living from their image to intentional fraud and harassment (ID HB 575). 

Tennessee might be the first, but it won’t be the last to specifically protect the rights individuals hold in their likeness. To help you make sense of all of this, we launched multistate.ai, a resource website and weekly update highlighting key developments in state AI policy and diving deep into select issue areas. Subscribe to multistate.ai here.