‘ELVIS ACT’ TN tries to protect musicians from AI Critics warn of unintended consequences.

Nashville, Tenn. (WKRN) — In a first-of-its-kind bill, Tennessee lawmakers want to give singers more guardrails against artificial intelligence to ensure their voices can’t be used without their permission.

However, some testified that the bill’s language was too broad and could have unintended consequences.

The “ELVIS Act” adds the word “voice” to Tennessee’s list of protected personal rights. State law currently protects the use of an individual’s name, image and likeness.

The bill’s name stands for “certainty, similarity, sound and image protection” and the bill’s authors hope it will prevent someone from using a musician’s voice to create a song or material they didn’t create. Is.

“I can’t use a celebrity’s recognizable voice to sell potato chips. It’s already on the books in some other states,” explained Joseph Fishman, a professor of copyright and entertainment law at Vanderbilt University. .

“If I’m using a fake version of Drake’s voice or Taylor Swift’s voice or someone else’s voice, not to sell a product, but as a fake song. This bill would target that as Other states have not already.

In testimony to lawmakers in support of the bill, songwriters and musicians said the law would protect against piracy.

“When a machine can take these songs from my lifetime of experiences and create a record that no artist has ever authorized, never even sung, resulting in a fake version. , released without permission or payment. That’s wrong,” said Grammy-nominated songwriter Jamie Moore.

Representatives of the Motion Picture Association told lawmakers that they support protections for artists, but as written the bill would restrict the free speech of TV and movie studios.

“It would absolutely chill the exercise of First Amendment-protected speech, making movies and TV shows based on real people and events,” said Ben Schaffner, an attorney for the Motion Picture Association.

Actress and singer Chrissy Metz anticipated this argument and foreshadowed it in her testimony.

“I think it’s great to let creative artists know that they’ve threatened free expression by supporting the legislation,” Metz said.

However, Fishman says the Motion Picture Association has a point and the current language in the bill will not only make it harder for documentaries and biopics to be made in Tennessee.

“It would also jeopardize the responsibility of calling Johnny Cash a tribute band that you’ll hear anywhere around Nashville. Nobody’s being cheated by a tribute band. Nobody thinks we’re tribute bands. A new law is needed to regulate the band. But this bill, I think, would be ignorant. So I think the intention here is very good, but the actual implementation and the language of the bill still needs work. “Yes,” he said.

This week, lawmakers decided to fix the bill’s language for a later date.

It was approved by a unanimous voice vote out of the House Banking and Consumer Affairs Subcommittee.