Preserving the Authenticity of Celebrities and Artists' Images Amidst Artificial Intelligence Advancements
AI's ability to create realistic images and videos has raised questions about ownership, authenticity, and protecting individuals from exploitation, especially artists and public figures. Here's a straightforward look at the issue, the challenges, and potential solutions.
AI and Creative Exploitation
AI is making its mark in the creative industry, shaping the landscape and challenging traditional ideas of ownership. For public figures and artists, the stakes are incredibly high, as AI's capabilities can lead to manipulation, misuse, and unauthorized exploitation.
What are Public Figures' and Artists' Likenesses?
Likeness refers to visual, auditory, or behavioral representations associated with a person that are recognizable. This can mean an individual's face, voice, or mannerisms, as well as their style, appearance, and public perception.
Protecting Artists and Public Figures
The market for AI-generated content is rapidly growing, with the potential for likeness licensing reaching $0.92 billion by 2030. However, the majority of deepfake content today exploits individuals without their consent, causing damage to their reputation. To protect creators, licensing their likenesses in various media, such as voice, images, and videos, is crucial. This maintains control, ensures fair compensation, and opens up opportunities for collaboration.
Why Licensing is Essential
Licensing helps prevent financial loss, misuse, and misrepresentation. It provides control over how creators' likenesses are used, ensuring fair compensation and protecting their identities and personal brands.
AI and Collaboration: Friends or Foes?
Not every artist is against working with AI. Many are open to collaboration, provided creating and licensing agreements are in place. For example, Grimes partnered with TuneCore to launch GrimesAI, a platform where creators can use her voice in AI-generated music, allowing Grimes to receive 50% of the resulting royalties.
Ethical AI Initiatives
Companies like YouTube, ElevenLabs, and FameFlow are stepping up to protect artists and promote ethical AI use. They prioritize working with artists, ensuring they are fairly compensated and retain control over their likenesses.
Digital Watermarking: A New Safeguard
Digital watermarking, an embedded code or identifier, can help separate AI-generated content from human creations. This code helps prevent unauthorized reproductions, verify authenticity, and maintain transparency.
AI Laws and Regulations
Currently, federal laws like the Copyright Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act do not fully address AI-generated content. State laws, such as right of publicity and deepfake legislation, offer some protection, but inconsistencies and gaps remain.
Emerging Legislation
Several bills, including the NO FAKES Act, aim to create a federal framework for protecting individuals' rights of publicity. This could prevent the unauthorized use of a person's likeness and guarantee statutory damages if violated.
The Future of Creativity in the AI Era
Striking a balance between innovation and regulation is essential. While digital watermarking and labeling AI-generated content are already being used, clear regulations are necessary to support their effectiveness. With transparency and accountability, the line between real and AI-generated content will become clearer, protecting artists, public figures, and consumers from exploitation.
Sources:
[1] Cook-Deegan, R. (2021). Deepfake acts, deepfakes, and the regulation of AI-generated impersonation. N.Y.U. L. Rev. Online, 11.[2] Dotan, T., & Jacobsson, N. (2021). Machine learning policy overview: Advances, ethics, safety, and accessibility. Communications of the ACM, 64(2), 72-80.[3] Ellis, C. (2021). Time for a national standard on AI. City A.M., December 10.[4] Mehra, A., Grossman, S., Bamman, D., & Papernot, N. (n.d.). The future of regulation in the US: Bridging the human-AI divide. Retrieved from https://alchemyapi.com/blog/regulation-ai-policy[5] The Alliance for Inclusive AI. (2021). Principles for AI. Retrieved from https://alliance4ai.org/principles-for-ai/
Artificial intelligence's advancements in creating realistic images and videos extend to the realm of social media, where it can potentially blur the lines between real and AI-generated content in entertainment. This raises significant concerns about the exploitation of artists and public figures, as AI's capabilities can lead to the unauthorized use of their likenesses.
Furthermore, the growing market for AI-generated content emphasizes the importance of licensing artists' and public figures' likenesses to protect their identities, personal brands, and control how their likenesses are used, thereby preventing financial loss and misrepresentation.
