Pryor Cashman Simon Pulman, co-chair of the Media + Entertainment and Film, TV + Podcast Groups, spoke with Bloomberg Law about legal issues emerging in the wake of artificial intelligence (AI) being used to copy recognizable celebrity voices.
In "Elvis Inspires First State AI Protections for Musicians' Voices," Simon brings up some early examples of this type of AI use and comments on what it could mean going forward:
There are examples of permission being given for AI to mimic famous celebrities' voices. Actor James Earl Jones licensed the rights to his archive for the purpose of replicating his iconic Darth Vader voice for Disney+ miniseries "Obi-Wan Kenobi," entertainment attorney Simon Pulman of Pryor Cashman LLP noted. AI also reproduced Val Kilmer's voice for 2022's "Top Gun: Maverick," as the actor lost the ability to speak years earlier after undergoing treatment for throat cancer.
The technology will "create a lot of work for the First Amendment and fair use attorneys," and, given the pure volume of content, courts will predictably find some infringement, Pulman said.
There's "tension between short-term profitability and long term consequences" as the entertainment industry charts a course for using the tools, he said. The "huge potential for abuse" of voice-replicating technology represents just a fraction of AI's potential downside given myriad other harms stemming from copyright theft, fraud, and deepfakes.
"This has gone from theoretical and science fiction fear to a very real and imminent perceived danger in a very short period of time," Pulman said.
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