TENNESSEE AI PROTECTIONS BILL MOVES FORWARD

A Tennessee bill introduced last month by Gov. Bill Lee to expand protections for songwriters, performers and music industry professionals from AI abuse will move forward to the final stage of consideration after unanimously passing both the Senate and House Commerce Committees.

The first-of-its-kind Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act would update Tennessee’s existing right to publicity laws, which protect an artist’s name, image and likeness from being exploited without their consent.

Artists such as Natalie Grant, Evanescence's David Hodges and Matt Maher (pictured) offered personal testimonies during a 2/27 hearing, while members of the Recording Academy, Recording Industry Association of America and SAG-AFTRA organized a day of advocacy at the Tennessee State Capitol to urge lawmakers to pass the act.

"Every day, there are new stories about deepfakes and AI-cloned voices and images that manipulates someone’s likeness without their consent," Grant said. "This is not just a problem that effects celebrities, this is a human problem that affects us all. As a mother of three daughters, I am terrified by how this technology has been used to exploit teenagers. It’s fitting that this bill is named the ELVIS Act, because Elvis performed so many different types of songs—from love songs to the blues, from pop songs to gospel music—but he infused them with his distinct voice, likeness, and personal qualities to create something new. Every individual should have the right to control their unique God-given qualities."

Added Hodges said, "The ELVIS Act is the first-of-its kind legislation that will put important guardrails around artificial intelligence for music creators. The Volunteer State is where many forms of the world’s music were either born or popularized. Music is intertwined with our history, culture and economy, so when technology spits out something based on ingested works created by people, something that is unauthorized, something an artist never even sang, that is wrong. Period. By adding the word ‘voice,’ the ELVIS Act modernizes current law and makes it crystal clear that unauthorized AI-generated fake recordings are subject to legal action in Tennessee."

The ELVIS Act follows last month's introduction of the federal No AI Fraud Act, which aims to combat abusive AI deepfakes, voice clones and exploitative digital human impersonations.