On Thursday (3/21/24), Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act, also called the ELVIS Act, into law. Tennessee is the first state in the nation to address AI’s impact on the music industry. The first-of-its-kind legislation updates Tennessee’s Protection of Personal Rights law to include protections of songwriters, performers, and music industry professionals’ voice from the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI).
While Tennessee’s preexisting law protected name, image, and likeness, it did not specifically address new, personalized generative AI cloning models and services that enable human impersonation and allow users to make unauthorized fake works in the image and voice of others.
The ELVIS Act builds upon existing state rule protecting against the unauthorized use of someone’s likeness by adding “voice” to the realm it protects.