The SAG-AFTRA Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) act has been reintroduced in the senate, and received bi-partisan support.
During a press conference held on April 9, the union said that, if passed, the bill would establish “a federal right in voice and likeness to protect against unauthorized use of digital replicas.”
The bill, sponsored by senators Marsha Blackburn, Chris Coons, Amy Klobuchar, and Thom Tillis, would apply to both audiovisual works and sound recordings. It was originally introduced in 2024, but it didn’t pass before the elections.
“The NO FAKES Act isn’t just about protecting actors, recording artists and broadcasters,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said in the press conference. “Deepfakes can ruin all lives. It doesn’t matter if you’re a public figure or a high school student being exploited by internet creeps. It’s time to give humans the power to say NO, not my face, not my voice!”
National executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland explained that the bill would allow SAG-AFTRA members and workers who rely on their face and voice for their livelihood to demand that platforms “remove illegal voice and image clones.” It would also grant a legal path into seeking damages from “those who intentionally cause harm.”
“As innovation continues to rapidly evolve, it’s time for commonsense legislation that defends individual rights,” Crabtree-Ireland said.
The main exceptions to the bill would be a digital replica that is used in “bona fide commentary, criticism, scholarship, satire, or parody.” SAG-AFTRA mentioned that the NO FAKES act would preserve existing protections at the state level. This includes Tennessee’s landmark SAG-AFTRA-supported Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) act, alongside California’s SAG-AFTRA-sponsored AB2602. As such, NO FAKES would provide “one strong, consent-based framework for digital replica uses in expressive works nationwide.”
A brief history of SAG-AFTRA’s strike
The union is entering its second year of striking studios under the Interactive Media Bargaining agreement. The agreement has been signed by over 180 studios, and provides protections against AI voice usage. While it continues to urge more studios to sign the agreement, it has also called out “alarming loopholes” in AI proposals from major game studios.
AI continues to be at the center of game industry news. During the past month alone, Activision Blizzard used generative AI to test interest in games that never existed in the first place. Castle of Secrets developer Serene Questworks allegedly replaced its voice cast with generative AI. Sony made use of the technology as well to turn Horizon series’ protagonist Aloy into an unsettling digital animatronic.
At GDC 2025, former EA software engineer and independent senior AI programmer David “Rez’ Graham expressed worries about “the death of art” surrounding the use of generative AI.
“I hope this is hyperbole,” Graham said “I hope in five years people are laughing at me. […] I hope that’s what happens. But you can’t deny there is some path that ends with this. With everything just being this recycled shoveled garbage. The race to the cheapest show. To the cheapest game. Because the people who are controlling the top corporations, that’s all they give a shit about.”
