For years now, actors have rung the alarm bells over the AI industry planning to sell their likeness and voices — either with or without their consent — and hence threatening to put them out of work.
Beyond a major 2023 strike by Hollywood actors fueled by these concerns, we’ve already seen actors take matters into their own hands, like when Scarlett Johansson threatened to sue OpenAI over a ChatGPT update that she claims imitated her voice. Two voice actors have also filed a lawsuit, accusing an AI startup of using their voices to train their AI without permission.
Tensions came to a head last year when an AI company unveiled an AI actor dubbed Tilly Norwood. The news was met by near-universal backlash from both industry insiders and the public, further stoking fears of the industry coming for human actors’ jobs.
To get ahead of having the industry making unauthorized AI dupes of his likeness or voice, Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey came up with a clever new defense tactic. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the performer filed eight trademark applications to the US Patent and Trademark Office that featured videos and audio clips of him “staring, smiling and talking.”
All eight applications have since been approved — and yes, one of the submitted clips included him saying his iconic line, “Alright, alright, alright” from the 1993 movie “Dazed and Confused.”
“My team and I want to know that when my voice or likeness is ever used, it’s because I approved and signed off on it,” McConaughey told the newspaper in an email. “We want to create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world.”
The goal is to pave the way for litigation in case a company or individual were to attempt to profit from the actor’s likeness with the help of AI.
“In a world where we’re watching everybody scramble to figure out what to do about AI misuse, we have a tool now to stop someone in their tracks or take them to federal court,” one of McConaughey’s attorneys, Jonathan Pollack, told the newspaper.
Whether the gambit will pay off remains to be seen. For one, many copyright infringement challenges aimed at AI companies are still playing out in court as we speak.
“I don’t know what a court will say in the end,” attorney Kevin Yorn, who is also representing McConaughey, told the WSJ. “But we have to at least test this.”
Other experts added that copyright law gets murky when it comes to AI-based video platforms, like OpenAI’s Sora. The app, which allows users to generate photorealistic clips of famous characters and actors despite the company’s guardrails, was criticized by talent agencies last year.
The Sam Altman-led firm appeared to have bungled its messaging at the time, telling some talent agencies at first that they’d have to opt out of having actors they represent appear on Sora — only to change its mind days later, triggering copious confusion.
Federal rules establishing if, when, and how an actor’s likeness or voice can be used are still being debated by lawmakers. Hollywood unions, however, remain adamant that unauthorized AI clones of actors should be illegal.
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