NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – With the ELVIS Act in 2024, Tennessee became the first state to pass legislation preventing AI platforms from using an artist’s voice or likeness to create content.
But passing the legislation is only half the battle.
Monday, new tech company Monarrch unveiled a brand new technology they’re working on to help enforce regulation around AI and likeness.
“Laws only work when they can be enforced,” co-founder of Monarrch John Pisciotta told an audience of music executives, lawmakers and artists.
The product uses an artist’s works to create a distinct digital profile of their voice and likeness.
“We use a whole heap of technology to go inside those piece of works, pull out feature extractions, and then match that and create a style fingerprint,” said Monarrch co-founder and product lead Finbar O’Hanlon.
That ‘style fingerprint’ can then be used to prevent generative AI from using the artist’s likeness in creating content, or allow them to set boundaries for when and how its used.
It can also help artists get compensated for AI content generated using their likeness.
“As an artist, you shouldn’t have to choose between being exploited by AI or excluded from AI,” O’Hanlon said. “To me, that’s a false choice. You should have the right to say yes. You should have the right to say no. You should have the right to set the conditions, to define context.”
Monarrch unveiled the product at an event on Belmont University’s campus alongside Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is working on several AI regulation bills at the federal level.
The company says their product can lay the framework to be built on as more regulations are passed.
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