Japan to Protect Celebrity Voices against AI Use

Tokyo, April 24 (Jiji Press)--An expert panel under Japan's Justice Ministry agreed Friday that the voices of individuals should be protected under publicity and portrait rights, amid a rise in the unauthorized use of celebrities' voices by generative artificial intelligence.

The agreement was made during the first meeting of the panel on civil compensation claims related to the unauthorized use of celebrities' images and voices by generative AI.

The ministry is set to compile guidelines on the scope and standards for illegal acts under current law by this summer.

There has been an increase in cases in which generative AI is trained on the voices of voice actors and singers to create "AI covers" of songs, and in which actors' images and videos are altered by AI to create sexual deepfakes.

The ministry aims to make it easier for victims of such cases to file lawsuits, by drawing up these guidelines.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]