A Congressional effort to protect intellectual property rights in the voice and visual likeness of individuals, and for other purposes, has commenced. This sees Senators weighing the pros and cons of a bill introduced on May 20 that would axe “deep fakes” while protecting entertainers and air personalities alike.
Introducing the “NO FAKES Act of 2026,” or S. 4591.
It comes courtesy of Delaware Democrat Chris Coons, and has some 13 co-sponsors — with notable bipartisan support. Among key Republicans signing on to support S. 4591 is Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, where Music City artist protection means big business.
In California, Democrat Adam Schiff has signed on as a co-sponsor.
Referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the “Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act of 2026” creates a national standard to protect people’s voices and visual likenesses from unauthorized, AI-generated digital replicas and deepfakes.
Initially introduced as a discussion draft in 2023, the bill was formally introduced in 2024 and reintroduced in 2025 as S. 1367. It continues to gain legislative traction and committee support in the Senate.
This iteration seeks to establish the first-ever federal intellectual property right over an individual’s digital persona; it would hold individuals and companies legally accountable if they produce, host, or share unauthorized digital replicas of someone’s voice or likeness in an audiovisual work or sound recording.
It also would require online services to swiftly remove unauthorized digital replicas upon receiving notice from the right holder, creating a safe harbor for platforms that establish notice-and-takedown systems.
With Democrats Thom Tillis and Amy Klobuchar joining Coons and Blackburn as original co-sponsors, the legislators note that Generative AI has opened new worlds of creative opportunities, providing tools that encourage millions of people to explore their own artistic potential. “Along with these creative benefits, however, these tools can allow users to exploit another person’s voice or visual likeness by creating highly realistic digital replicas without permission,” the Senators state.
In one high profile example, the song “Heart on My Sleeve,” which was created with AI-generated replicas of the voices of pop stars Drake and The Weeknd, quickly accumulated hundreds of thousands of listens on YouTube, Spotify, and other streaming sites before it was identified as a fake and removed from the platforms. Last October, an AI-generated version of Tom Hanks was used in advertisements for a dental plan that he never appeared in or otherwise endorsed. More recently, in April, a principal at a Baltimore high school was framed as a racist by an AI-generated recording of his voice.
“The NO FAKES Act would address the use of non-consensual digital replications in these kinds of audiovisual works, images, or sound recordings,” the Senators believe.
