California Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs AI Bills That Give Performers Greater Protections & Control Over Their Likenesses, Limit Use Of Election Deepfakes — Update

UPDATED, with governor signing additional legislation: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills today designed to give greater protections to performers and others over the use of their digital likenesses during their lives and to their estates.

Newsom signed the legislation at the Los Angeles headquarters of SAG-AFTRA, which has been one of the major champions of the new laws.

“We’re making sure that no one turns over their name, image and likeness to unscrupulous people without representation or union advocacy,” Newsom said.

AB 1836 expands the scope of the state’s postmortem right of publicity, including the use of digital replicas, meaning that an estate’s permission would be needed to use such technology to re-create the voice and likeness of a deceased person. There are exceptions for news, public affairs and sports broadcasts, as well as for other uses such as satire, comment, criticism and parody and for certain documentary, biographical or historical projects.

The other bill, AB 2602, bolsters protections for artists in contract agreements over the use of their digital likenesses. 

“It is a momentous day for SAG-AFTRA members and everyone else, because the AI protections we fought so hard for last year are now expanded upon by California law thanks to the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher.

The Motion Picture Association, which initially expressed opposition to the new laws, ultimately took a neutral stance.

Newsom has not yet signed another AI bill, SB 1047, which would require AI developers in the state to implement security precautions before training their models. That has drawn opposition from major companies like OpenAI, as well as from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But backers of the legislation say that it is light-touch regulation that merely codifies voluntary safety commitments that AI firms already have made. Hollywood figures such as Sean Astin and Mark Ruffalo have encouraged Newsom to sign the bill.

Later today, Newsom also signed a trio of bills to limit the use of deepfakes in election campaigns. Among other things, the bills require platforms to remove or label deceptive and digitally altered content during election periods. Campaign ads will have to disclose when they use AI-generated content.

“These measures will help to combat the harmful use of deepfakes in political ads and other content, one of several areas in which the state is being proactive to foster transparent and trustworthy AI,” Newsom said in a statement.

Newsom also singled out Elon Musk for his amplification of a video that featured a digitally altered voice of Kamala Harris.