AI Protection Bill Heading To Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Desk Soon; SAG-AFTRA Praises “Huge Step Forward” Of Digital Replica Legislation

Dominic Patten
·4 min read

Even Elon Musk wants to see California legislation to safeguard against the unrestricted rise of artificial intelligence and today politicians in Sacramento moved one giant step closer to protecting actors from a virtual afterlife of sorts.

On a third reading, the state Senate Tuesday passed a bill that would require studios, streamers and other employers to seek specific permission from performers to create digital replicas.

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Well before Assembly Bill 2602 was introduced back in April, the bill has been strongly supported by SAG-AFTRA. On all political fronts, the guild has pressed over the year for federal and state legislation to codify many of the provisions in their strike ending agreement with the AMPTP last fall.

“We are thrilled that one of our top legislative priorities, Bill AB 2602 has passed in the State of California,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree Ireland told Deadline tonight. “The bill which protects not only SAG-AFTRA performers but all performers, is a huge step forward,” the guild leader added on the legislation that he has testified in favor of up in Sacramento.

“Voice and likeness rights, in an age of digital replication, must have strong guardrails around licensing to protect from abuse, this bill provides those guardrails.”

Going through the usual revisions that almost all legislation does, AB 2602 currently defines a digital replica as a “computer-generated, highly realistic electronic representation that is readily identifiable as the voice or visual likeness of an individual that is embodied in a sound recording, image, audiovisual work, or transmission in which the actual individual either did not actually perform or appear, or the actual individual did perform or appear, but the fundamental character of the performance or appearance has been materially altered.”

According to the bill, it “does not include the electronic reproduction, use of a sample of one sound recording or audiovisual work into another, remixing, mastering, or digital remastering of a sound recording or audiovisual work authorized by the copyright holder.”

Facing zero opposition in the Democratic dominated Assembly and Senate, AB 2602 now needs to head back to the lower body for be replicated itself, so to speak, due to changes made in the Senate.

After that, AB 2602 will head to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk to either be signed into law or vetoed. The Governor’s office had no statement on the bill this evening, but it is a fair bet AB 2602’s fate is looking pretty good.

As it reads right now, the six-member sponsored legislation, which saw mention of the digital replica use of the long dead Peter Cushing in 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is set to be enforceable as of January 1, 2025 if Gov. Newsom signs the bill.

Along with other AI guardrail legislation making its way through California’s legislature, in DC there are several efforts, some even bipartisan in the deeply divided Congress, like the No Fakes Act inching towards passage. Even with the criticized “materially relevant” exception clause still in the No Fakes Act, the Fran Drescher-led SAG-AFTRA has been increasingly active in Sacramento and on Capitol Hill.

From the White House, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have put forth a variety of executive orders over the past year to limit the spread of generative AI.

“Artificial intelligence and the companies that wield its possibilities are going to transform the lives of people around the world – there’s no doubt about that. But first, they must earn our trust,” the president said in May not long after Scarlett  Johansson’s very public skirmish with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the use of a voice very similar to hers in the ChatGPT 4.0 system.

“I commit to do everything in my power to promote and demand safe, secure, trustworthy, and responsible innovation – that includes the use of AI-generated audio,” the incumbent POTUS added this spring. “I ask that AI companies join me in that commitment.”

As today’s AB 2602 passage in California proves, if they won’t commit, legislate.

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