AEMI Letter in Support of the NO FAKES Act
August 26, 2024
Re: S. 4875, the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act
Dear Senator,
On behalf of the Arts, Entertainment, and Media Industries (AEMI) coalition within the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I urge you to co-sponsor S. 4875, the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act. This bipartisan legislation would protect individuals, including AEMI union members, from unauthorized digital replicas of their voice and visual likenesses in audiovisual works and sound recordings.
By way of introduction, the AEMI coalition consists of 12 national unions that represent professionals in the arts, entertainment, and media industries. By virtue of its size and scope of coverage, the AEMI is the leading voice in the labor movement on public policy in the arts, entertainment, and media industries. The AEMI unions’ members help power a sector of the economy that regularly generates four percent of the United States’ gross domestic product (GDP), creates a positive trade balance, and employs more than five million people.
Artificial intelligence (AI), including generative artificial intelligence (GAI), is a double-edged sword that has the potential to empower and democratize storytelling and creation to an unprecedented degree. At the same time, AI poses a significant threat of abuse absent proper safeguards. Without smart policymaking and requisite safeguards, AI may upend the livelihoods of union creative professionals who rely more than ever on effective intellectual property rights to earn compensation and benefits and ensure future career opportunities in today’s digital era.
Federal protections against unauthorized digital replicas are a critically important intellectual property right for the members of AEMI unions who earn their livelihoods through their voices and likenesses. Most are everyday Americans who go to work using their lifetime of training in performances that connect with audiences and generate commercial success. Unauthorized AI-generated digital replicas of these individuals represent a theft of their voice and visual likenesses, denying them hard earned pay and threatening their future career opportunities.
Union creative professionals know too well the dangers and damages that will result if Congress fails to put a stop to the unauthorized use of digital replicas in audiovisual and sound recordings. AEMI unions’ members have already been subjected to image-based sexual abuse, misappropriation for commercial gain, and a proliferation of disinformation using public figures without their consent.
In closing, the AEMI is proud to join the broad coalition of supporters - including industry employers and tech companies - united in support of the NO FAKES Act. This commonsense, bipartisan legislation would establish vital safeguards for union professionals without stifling the ethical, human-centric use of AI.
If you have any questions, please contact me or DPE’s Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President