Governor Bill Lee Introduces ELVIS Act For Likeness, Voice & Image Protection

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At a press conference at Studio A in Nashville on Wednesday (Jan. 10), Tennessee Governor Bill Lee introduced bicameral legislation alongside State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-27) and House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-44) regarding concerns about creators’ voice, image and likeness rights.

The Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act updates Tennessee’s Protection of Personal Rights law, making it the first state in the nation to preserve individual voice, image and likeness against irresponsible and unethical artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of deepfakes and audio cloning. The ELVIS Act seeks to protect the future of Tennessee creators from the harmful misuse of technology on some online platforms, such as computer-generated recordings that resemble artists’ voices or deepfake videos.

Christian music icon Michael W. Smith welcomed the artists, songwriters, music industry folk and legislative leaders gathered at the press conference. He shared, “As a working artist and songwriter, I know how vital it is to build a creative environment that protects the work and individuality of future generations of dreamers. While I am grateful for existing tools that have helped me craft both my music and my message, even more personal gifts and attributes have a right to be protected from digital manipulations. I’m honored to be here today as a voice supporting the ELVIS Act to protect my fellow musicians today and in the future.”

Governor Lee said, “From Beale Street to Broadway and beyond, Tennessee is known for our rich artistic heritage that tells the story of our great state. As the technology landscape evolves with artificial intelligence, we’re proud to lead the nation in proposing legal protection for our best-in-class artists and songwriters.”

Other attendees supporting today’s update to Tennessee’s Right of Publicity law include artists, songwriters, producers and engineers such as Ruby Amanfu, Steve Cropper, Tom Douglas, Lindsay Ell, Matt Maher, Jamie Moore, Ari Morris, Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell (Royal Studios), Maggie Rose, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Gebre Waddell, Matthew West and Lainey Wilson.

Artist and songwriter advocacy organizations have come out in support of the ELVIS Act, including NSAI, NMPA, RIAA, the Recording Academy, A2IM, Artist Rights Alliance, SAG-AFTRA and SoundExchange.

Of the piece of legislature, NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison says, “The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) resulted in fake recordings that are not authorized by the artist and is wrong, period. The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) applauds Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, State Senator Jack Johnson and Rep. William Lamberth for introducing legislation that adds the word ‘voice’ to the existing law—making it crystal clear that unauthorized AI-generated fake recordings are subject to legal action in the state of Tennessee. This is an important step in what will be an ongoing challenge to regulate generative AI music creations.”

NMPA President & CEO David Israelite adds, “AI deepfakes and voice cloning threaten the integrity of all music. It makes sense that Tennessee state would pioneer these important policies which will bolster and protect the entire industry. Music creators face enough forces working to devalue their work—technology that steals their voice and likeness should not be one of them.”

Notably, RIAA Chairman & CEO Mitch Glazier also released a statement earlier today in support of the No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas And Unauthorized Duplications Act of 2024 (No AI Fraud Act). The bipartisan legislation introduced by Representatives María Elvira Salazar (R-FL-27), Madeleine Dean (D-PA-4), Nathaniel Moran (R-TX-1), Joe Morelle (D-NY-25) and Rob Wittman (R-VA-1) also aims to combat abusive AI deepfakes, voice clones and exploitive digital human impersonations.

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