Do you still own yourself in the A.I. era?

SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. (AND NO SPAM!) Just click here.

Even the free A.I.s are now good enough to put any words into someone else’s mouth, which raises some fundamental questions about the tensions between my right to free speech and your right to own and control your likeness and voice.

Delegating those questions to federal bureaucrats through new regulatory powers risks abuse, but inaction also entails obvious risks.

Fortunately, a bipartisan coalition in Congress has developed an individual rights-based approach to this problem that has done the seemingly impossible, drawing support from both creative artists and technology platforms.

The bill, called the No Fakes Act, would establish a federal property right for every American to his or her own voice and likeness. It is a straightforward extension of the principle that we own ourselves and our creative works.

Intellectual property is America’s bedrock, the only property right expressly protected by the Constitution. Without clear ownership of our voices and likenesses, A.I. tools can flood the market with counterfeit replicas that undermine authentic human expression, enable scams, revenge porn, and identity fraud, and erode trust in everything from news to entertainment.

Federal inaction on this issue has created a patchwork of incomplete and conflicting state approaches, inviting forum shopping, and slowing innovation. The No Fakes Act replaces that confusion with one uniform national standard. It preempts state regulation while protecting every American’s enforceable right to control computer-generated replicas of their own identity. Not just celebrities, everyone.

The bill arms individuals with practical tools modeled on the successful DMCA notice-and-takedown system. Platforms receive safe harbor when they promptly remove unauthorized fakes upon proper notice. Victims gain the ability to seek damages from those who knowingly create or traffic in other people’s face or voice without permission. This structure reduces litigation, keeps fake content down efficiently, and avoids turning every dispute into a federal case.

Unlike some earlier versions, there are now robust free speech protections included. The legislation carves out explicit exemptions for news reporting, documentaries, biopics, docudramas, commentary, criticism, satire, and parody. These First Amendment safeguards ensure the bill cannot be twisted into a censorship tool. Bad-faith takedown notices are penalized.

The approach is grounded in consent and property rather than top-down mandates or big-government regulations. It lets markets work: creators and platforms can negotiate licenses for beneficial uses while bad actors face liability. AI developers retain room to innovate on general-purpose tools; only specific unauthorized clones and the tools built to traffic in them are targeted.

Broad coalition support from OpenAI, Google, and IBM to RIAA, MPA, SAG-AFTRA, and child-protection groups shows the bill has achieved the sweet spot that allows individuals to protect themselves without diminishing the rights of, or imposing unreasonable compliance costs on, others.

Polling confirms 92 percent of Americans are concerned about A.I. fakes and back federal protection for voice and likeness. The No Fakes Act delivers that protection without sacrificing the innovation that has kept the United States first in A.I. patents and creative output.

A federal property right in your own voice and likeness is the logical next step to keep human creativity at the center of technological progress. Congress should reject calls for stringent regulation and adopt this sensible rights-based approach.

–

Phil Kerpen is president of American Commitment, a columnist on Fox News Opinion, chairman of the Internet Freedom Coalition, and author of the 2011 book "Democracy Denied."

(COMMENT, BELOW)