Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has signed an interesting law that may shape how AI and copyright will be regulated. The Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act was enacted with the intent to try and protect artists and their work from the use of “deepfake” and generative artificial intelligence to create work with their image, sound, and likeness. Tennessee is usually considered to be the center point for country music around the world as many famous singers have gotten their start there. Everyone from Dolly Parton to Miley Cyrus and, of course, Elvis Presley began their various successful careers in this state.

In recent months, many artists have been expressing their concerns with their voices being used in works created by generative AI. Examples include Johnny Cash and Hank Williams’ voices being used to create new music or Elvis Presley’s voice being used for him to sing the 1992 song: “Baby Got Back”. Even last year, Spotify and Apple Music had to remove a song that although not mentioning them by name, used Drake and The Weeknd voices, called “heart on my sleeve” which was determined to be created by Artificial Intelligence (https://aibusiness.com/nlp/spotify-apple-music-take-down-ai-generated-song). Sadly, this type of technology has also been used for more sinister uses which this Act wants to try and limit and protect.

There are two sides to this argument. On one side, country singer Luke Bryan said: “Stuff comes in on my phone and I can’t tell it’s not me. It’s a real deal now and hopefully this will curb it and slow it down”. (https://www.fastcompany.com/91067368/first-in-nation-tennessees-elvis-act-aims-protect-musicians-from-ai). While on the other, artists like the Beatles created their final song “Now and Then” in 2023 using AI to finish it or Grimes who encourages people to use AI based on her music, offering 50% split royalties on any successful hits (https://www.npr.org/2024/03/22/1240114159/tennessee-protect-musicians-artists-ai).

The legislation is trying to expand on the protection that “name, image and likeness” has already existed and has been protected as part of the right of publicity that every person has by including specific provisions and protections relating to the use of Artificial Intelligence in replicating and mimicking an artist’s voice.

Currently, only three states (Georgia, California, and Tennessee) have begun to tackle these issues which are very new because of the technology at this time. Time will only tell what the actual effects of this bill will have on the industry once it goes into full effect on July 1^st of this year. It will also definitely be interesting to see whether the rest of the states will try and get their version of this type of law to protect their artists.

Sources:

·     https://aibusiness.com/responsible-ai/tennessee-enacts-elvis-act-to-protect-artist-voices-from-ai-misuse#close-modal

·     https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/5-ish-things-about-ai-apple-serious-about-ai-pitting-ai-against-the-experts-the-elvis-act-passes/

·     https://www.fastcompany.com/91067368/first-in-nation-tennessees-elvis-act-aims-protect-musicians-from-ai

·     https://aibusiness.com/nlp/spotify-apple-music-take-down-ai-generated-song

·     https://www.npr.org/2024/03/22/1240114159/tennessee-protect-musicians-artists-ai