ELVIS ACT: Tennessee Law Protects Music Artists From AI

The state of Tennessee has become the first in the nation to protect music artists against the dangers of artificial intelligence.

Yesterday (Thursday) in Nashville, Governor Bill Lee signed the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act of 2024, or ELVIS Act. It expands the state’s old publicity law to cover synthetic voices, images or video, and would bar unauthorized use in a documentary, song or book — or basically anything else.

The act has strong bipartisan support, particularly from organizations including the RIAA, NMPA, BMI, ASCAP, Recording Academy and American Association of Independent Music. Within hours of the signing, congresspeople on Capitol Hill began working on a federal law similar to the ELVIS Act.

One example of the damaging potential posed by mainstream artificial intelligence technology: its ability to create convincingly real and damaging images. Pornographic, AI-generated images of one of the world’s most famous stars Taylor Swift was spread across social media in January, on social media site X, previously known as Twitter. The photos – which show the singer in sexually suggestive and explicit positions – were viewed tens of millions of times before being removed from social platforms. But nothing on the internet is truly gone forever, and they will undoubtedly continue to be shared on other, less regulated channels. (CNN)

Lee signed the bill into law at one of Nashville’s famed honky tonks, Robert’s Western World, with country stars including Luke Bryan and Chris Janson on hand. (Billboard)