ELVIS Act To Move Forward In Tennessee

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Pictured (L-R): RIAA’s Mitch Glazier, Recording Academy’s Todd Dupler, Natalie Grant, Recording Academy’s Alicia Warwick and RIAA’s Jackie Jones during ELVIS Act Advocacy Day at the Cordell Hull State Office Building. Photos: Jason Davis/Getty Images for the Recording Academy

The Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act will move forward to the final stage of State General Assembly Consideration and Governor’s Signature in Tennessee after unanimously passing the Senate and House Commerce Committees today (Feb. 27).

The ELVIS Act was introduced by Governor Bill Lee along with State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-27) and House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-44) last month. The major legislation 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, and seeks to protect the future of Tennessee creators from the harmful misuse of technology on some online platforms, including computer-generated recordings that resemble artists’ voices or deepfake videos.

The ELVIS Act advanced following personal testimonies from Christian artist-songwriters Natalie Grant and Matt Maher as well as songwriter and Evanescence founding member David Hodges. Additionally, several Human Artistry Campaign members such as Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), the Recording Academy, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and SAG-AFTRA mobilized their teams and orchestrated a day of advocacy at the Tennessee State Capitol, where music creators engaged in discussions with legislators, urging them to support the passage of the ELVIS Act. Participants included Tennessee artists and songwriters, mostly based in Nashville and Memphis.

“Every day, there are new stories about deepfakes and AI-cloned voices and images that manipulates someone’s likeness without their consent. This is not just a problem that effects celebrities, this is a human problem that affects us all. As a mother of three daughters, I am terrified by how this technology has been used to exploit teenagers,” said Grant. “It’s fitting that this bill is named the ELVIS Act, because Elvis performed so many different types of songs–from love songs to the blues, from pop songs to gospel music–but he infused them with his distinct voice, likeness, and personal qualities to create something new. Every individual should have the right to control their unique God-given qualities.”

Hodges said, “In a three-minute tapestry of words and music, my gift, and my job, is to get you to laugh or cry and to remember your most cherished times in life through my songs. The ELVIS Act is the first-of-its kind legislation that will put important guardrails around artificial intelligence for music creators. The Volunteer State is where many forms of the world’s music were either born or popularized. Music is intertwined with our history, culture and economy so when technology spits out something based on ingested works created by people, something that is unauthorized, something an artist never even sang, that is wrong. Period.” He added, “As a professional songwriter, syllables matter. A single note can change a song. For artists their delivery is part of their brand. They carefully choose the songs they record and release. By adding the word ‘voice,’ the ELVIS Act modernizes current law and makes it crystal clear that unauthorized AI-generated fake recordings are subject to legal action in Tennessee.”

All of this comes as the federal bipartisan No AI Fraud federal gains traction on the heels of congressional testimonies from country artist Lainey Wilson and Recording Academy President & CEO Harvey Mason Jr. as well as nearly 300 actors, artists, musicians and songwriters co-signing these protections.

Liza Anderson
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