It’s Now Officially Illegal to Use AI To Impersonate a Human Actor in Hollywood
24th September 2024
California has passed two new bills protecting actors and performers against AI, in a potentially precedent-setting moment for tech legislation across the country.
While these largely overlap with the AI safeguards that SAG-AFTRA passed last year, the new laws not only bolster those existing protections but extend them to everyone in California — not just to people working in front of a camera in Hollywood, as IndieWire notes.
Together, the bills, which were passed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, make it illegal to use an AI-generated digital replica of an actor’s likeness or voice — or technically, any Californian’s — without their explicit consent.
No, they weren’t passed by Newsom, they were passed by the state legislature and signed by Newsom. But I can understand how ‘journalists’ can confuse the two.
Will the movie/TV business leave California as a result? Let’s stay tuned.