According to billboard.com, Tennessee‘s governor Bill Lee has announced a  state bill to further protect the state’s “best in class artists and songwriters” from AI impersonation. Although Tennessee already has laws to protect residents against the exploitation of their name, image and likeness without their consent, the new law called the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act (ELVIS Act)  is an update to the existing law that addresses challenges brought by new generative AI tools.

“From Beale Street to Broadway, to Bristol and beyond, Tennessee is known for our rich artistic heritage that tells the story of our great state. As the technology landscape evolves with artificial intelligence, we’re proud to lead the nation in proposing legal protection for our best-in-class artists and songwriters,” said Lee.

The announcement follows a bipartisan group of U.S. House lawmakers who revealed the No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas And Unauthorized Duplications Act (No AI FRAUD Act), which aims to establish a framework for protecting one’s voice and likeness on a federal level and lays out First Amendment protections.

The new law is said to be a complement to the Senate’s Nurture Originals, Foster Art and Keep Entertainment Safe Act (NO FAKES Act), which is a draft bill that was introduced last October. An artist’s voice, image or likeness may be covered by “right of publicity” laws that protect them from commercial exploitation without authorization, but this is a right that varies state by state.

The ELVIS Act aims to provide Tennessee-based talent with much clearer protection for their voices in particular at the state level, and the No AI FRAUD Act hopes to establish a harmonized baseline of protection on the federal level.

This past yearThe subject of AI voice cloning has been a controversial topic in the music business year but in some cases, the technology presents novel creative opportunities  including for pitch records, lyric translations, estate marketing and fan engagement. But AI also poses serious threats because if an artist’s voice is cloned by AI without their permission or knowledge, it can confuse, offend, mislead or even scam fans.