SAG-AFTRA’s open letter calling for Congress to pass the NO FAKES Act, a bill designed to counter the wave of AI-generated deepfakes online, has drawn more than 16,000 signatures.
“Unchecked AI can ruin lives,” SAG-AFTRA president Sean Astin said in a statement. “Americans are demanding that the Federal Government take sensible action. The NO FAKES Act would establish a fundamental protection to control their own voice and likeness.”
The bipartisan bill would give all individuals, regardless of whether or not they are public figures, control over how their name, voice and likeness are used and establish a federal law against unauthorized use via deepfakes and other generative AI technology. The bill was revived last month by its co-sponsors after it stalled in Senate committees last year.
Sponsors include Democrat Sens. Chris Coons (DE) and Amy Klobuchar (MN) along with Rep. Madeleine Dean (PA). Republican sponsors are Sens. Marsha Blackburn (TN) and Thom Tillis (NC) alongside Rep. Maria Salazar (FL). All four Senate co-sponsors are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will address the bill on Thursday.
Alongside SAG-AFTRA, the NO FAKES Act has received public support from the AFL-CIO, YouTube, IBM and OpenAI, as well as trade orgs like the Motion Picture Association, The Recording Academy, the National Association of Broadcasters and the Recording Industry Association of America.
“Rarely does legislation earn this kind of cross-sector support. The NO FAKES Act represents common sense, long-overdue federal protection, and Congress now has both the opportunity and the obligation to pass it,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator, added.
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