USACalifornia has approved a landmark AI Actto protect the actor'sDigital Portrait.
On Tuesday local time, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2602.The bill will take effect on January 1, 2025.
The bill requires studios and other employers to obtain consent authorization before using "digital replicas" of performers, and Newsom signed AB 1836, which grants similar rights to deceased performers.Studios need heritage license before using their AI portraits.
Image source: Pexels
AB 2602 was introduced in April of this year and covers movies, television, video games, commercials, audiobooks, and non-union acting jobs. Deadline noted that its terms are similar to the final agreed-upon contract terms of the 2023 actors' strike against Hollywood studios.
The bill provides thatEmployers are not at liberty to use AI to recreate an actor's voice or likeness, preventing the replacement of work that the performer could have done himself or herselfThe bill defines a digital replica as "a computer-generated, highly realistic electronic representation, readily recognizable as the sound or visual likeness of an individual, embodied in a sound recording, image, audiovisual work, or transmission, in which the actual individual does not actually perform or appear, or in which the actual individual does perform or appear, but in which the essential nature of the performance or appearance has been materially altered. "
On August 27, AB 2602 was introduced as a bill to 37 to 1Passed the California Senate vote.