Japan to Protect Celebrity Voices against AI Use

(Add an apostrophe to the university name in the last paragraph. A substitute story follows.) Japan to Protect Celebrity Voices against AI Use Tokyo, April 24 (Jiji Press)–An expert panel under Japan’s Justice Ministry agreed Friday that the voices of individuals should be protected under publicity and portrait rights, amid a rise in the unauthorized use of celebrities’ voices by generative artificial intelligence. The agreement was made during the first meeting of the panel on civil compensation claims related to the unauthorized use of celebrities’ images and voices by generative AI. The ministry is set to compile guidelines on the scope and standards for illegal acts under current law by this summer. There has been an increase in cases in which generative AI is trained on the voices of voice actors and singers to create “AI covers” of songs, and in which actors’ images and videos are altered by AI to create sexual deepfakes. The ministry aims to make it easier for victims of such cases to file lawsuits, by drawing up these guidelines. At the meeting, participants reviewed judicial precedents and academic theories on publicity and portrait rights. They discussed whether these rights could be transferred to talent agencies and whether they could be inherited by bereaved families after death. Some participants voiced support for allowing these rights to be transferred, saying that there are practical benefits, such as making it easier for talent agencies to file lawsuits on behalf of celebrities. Meanwhile, other participants expressed caution, mentioning the risk that individuals’ views may not be reflected in the use of their voices or images. The next meeting will discuss the possibility of imposing civil liability in specific cases, such as audio sources generated by AI using the voice of an anime character played by a voice actor and naked images created by AI using an actor’s portrait. Chaired by Yoshiyuki Tamura, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, the panel consists of eight members, mainly academics and lawyers specializing in intellectual property law and the Civil Code. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]