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September 24th, 2024

It's Now Officially Illegal to Use AI to Impersonate a Human Actor in Hollywood

California has enacted laws prohibiting AI impersonation of actors without consent, extending protections to all residents, regulating cloning of deceased actors, and addressing AI deepfakes aimed at voters.

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It's Now Officially Illegal to Use AI to Impersonate a Human Actor in Hollywood

California has enacted two new laws that make it illegal to use AI to impersonate human actors without their explicit consent. Signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, these laws expand protections previously established by SAG-AFTRA, applying not only to Hollywood actors but to all Californians. The legislation prohibits the creation of AI-generated replicas of an individual's likeness or voice without permission, and it also restricts the cloning of deceased actors unless authorized by their estates. This move is seen as a significant step in the ongoing debate over AI's role in the entertainment industry, reflecting tensions between Hollywood creatives and tech companies. Additionally, Newsom has introduced laws to combat AI deepfakes intended to mislead voters during elections. However, another proposed law, SB 1047, which could hold tech companies accountable for their AI outputs, is still pending and has raised concerns about its potential impact on California's tech industry. Newsom has expressed caution about the implications of such legislation on the state's competitiveness in the AI sector.

- California has made it illegal to use AI to impersonate actors without consent.

- The new laws extend protections to all Californians, not just Hollywood performers.

- Cloning of deceased actors requires permission from their estates.

- New laws also target AI deepfakes aimed at deceiving voters.

- A pending law could hold tech companies accountable for AI outputs, raising industry concerns.

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Link Icon 21 comments
By @roenxi - 7 months
Cool but probably not that interesting to the development of AI in Hollywood over the longer term. As the tech improves, at current rates, I expect we'll see something like VTubers on a mass scale. Companies creating their own virtual people - where they control the IP - and putting all their efforts behind promoting them instead of humans. It'll be cheaper and easier in the long run.

Same process as green screens or the rise of animation. There is a lot of pressure on the humans and once AIs crack acting they'll be much more consistently good than humans.

By @JumpCrisscross - 7 months
"Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter" [1].

The original source [2] is much clearer. It addresses the other comment's confusion: the laws extend "to protect anyone in California living or dead."

Also, the bills:

https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab...

https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240ab...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[2] https://www.indiewire.com/news/breaking-news/using-ai-replac...

By @BluSyn - 7 months
Just in California, right? What’s the prevent a studio elsewhere from doing this? Online distribution makes the legal borders meaningless here. So people in California will just need a VPN to watch future action movies?
By @Dracophoenix - 7 months
Implicit in this law is the absurd assumption that an individual owns a particular arrangement of facial features. How does this law apply if an identical twin or real-life doppelgängers agree to become models for a digital replica? If you throw a quarter in a crowded New York subway, it's likely to bounce off three blond heads that bear a resemblance to Taylor Swift. They shouldn't be denied their own bodily autonomy on the basis of a legal fiction and an ersatz patent system devised for the benefit of a special interest.
By @squarefoot - 7 months
Hollywood is in panic (just as every art related business) about AI, but in this case I'm sure they pushed some buttons to delay the inevitable until they're ready to build an infrastructure that rents famous deceased actors/actresses tracts, voices and characters through their respective agents. Living actors could also agree with that. Would a old retied actor refuse a boatload of money to allow putting a 25 years old clone of him/herself in a new movie, if they could oversee the creation/direction and veto what they wouldn't like? I don't think AI clones in movies are going away anytime soon, there's too much money that can't be ignored.
By @singularity2001 - 7 months
How could one ever define a threshold in similarity between a living person and some AI resembling that living person?
By @rurban - 7 months
So they will just move to Miami or New Orleans.

The bigger remaining problem would be the SAG actors union deal, caused by the last strike. And this was already before Newsom signed this. Do we have elections coming up? Oh yes, we do

By @fabioq - 7 months
I think that's fair and AI should create new actors, avatars, which then could fall into IP laws. I would love to see Agents of AI actors create strong and lasting actors for movies and market them
By @autoexec - 7 months
> Studios will also be prohibited from cloning deceased actors unless they have permission from their estates.

It'd be great to see people protected everywhere, but do estates for the dead always exist? Hopefully there's some exception carved out for the dead who don't really have anyone around to care if they're used or not. A lot of cool stuff could be done with AI historical figures or ancient performers.

By @soco - 7 months
As much as it might be shunned in some circles, organized people can still change things for the better.
By @kleiba - 7 months
Why just actors?
By @pfannkuchen - 7 months
So you can definitely portray historical figures without permission, right?. For example no one is getting permission from Hitler’s estate for WW2 movies AFAIK.

If you have someone playing Hitler in an alternate reality where he was a bartender, is that illegal today?

Can’t you do the same with an actor?

Or do you actually need permission to portray historical figures, and Hitler or Napoleon etc are just special cases because they don’t have estates to be asked?

By @sazz - 7 months
So AI is forbidden to impersonate somebody who impersonates somebody else?
By @tempfile - 7 months
Why limit it to commercial works? I was originally optimistic this would help with e.g. deepfake attacks. Unfortunately it seems like it is mere protectionism.
By @yieldcrv - 7 months
without permission

easy to obtain permission

accelerates reason to generate new genAI humans with no meatspace counterpart

actors still don’t get paid

By @LeoPanthera - 7 months
...without permission.
By @rnamyv - 7 months
I agree with the impersonation bans but I'm disappointed that it took a viral Kamala Harris parody to get Gavin Newsom into action:

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/18/california-deepfake...

Politicians care about their own, not the general population.