SPRINGFIELD – Recording artists could soon have more protections from artificial intelligence (AI) replicating their voice or work under legislation from State Senator Mary Edly-Allen and State Representative Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz.

“We need strong regulations and protections in place to safeguard artists when people try to steal their work and pass it off as their own using artificial intelligence,” said Edly-Allen (D-Libertyville). “This bill was made to clarify existing law using language approved by both the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA).”

As an emerging technological platform, there were no restrictions on AI models replicating a music artist’s voice before the passage of the Digital Voice and Likeness Protection Act last year. Without regulations, some organizations and even music studios have sought to establish a monopoly of control over their artists’ voices and melodies for AI projects.

To give artists more agency of how their voice or melody may be replicated by AI, Illinois’ Digital Voice and Likeness Protection Act requires artists to have legal representation or support from a collective bargaining agreement when negotiating an AI project involving their art, and how they will be compensated for the AI replica. This prevents music studios from profiting off an artist’s likeness or voice by using AI to replicate them without the consent of the artist or without fair compensation.

House Bill 3178 updates the Digital Voice and Likeness Protection Act by clarifying terms of acceptable use and when digital replica agreements are unenforceable. This bill also would limit the act's impact to only digital replica provisions.

“As AI technology evolves, our laws need to evolve along with it. This legislation updates the groundbreaking Digital Voice and Likeness Protection Act we passed last year, bringing it up to date with new standards in other states,” said Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview). “This is a step toward creating a national standard other states can adopt to create a level playing field for working artists nationwide.”

House Bill 3178 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

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