Senators Agree To Exempt Right Of Publicity Laws From AI Moratorium

One of the most divisive provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act among Republicans has been a 10-year moratorium on state AI laws and regulation.

On Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a champion of the moratorium, reached a compromise with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who has objected to the provision. She has pointed to the possibility that her state’s ELVIS Act, passed last year to root out AI deepfakes and other unauthorized uses of artists’ voice and likeness, would be sidelined.

New language in the provision now exempts laws and state regulations that have to do with “unfair or deceptive acts or practices, child online safety, child sexual abuse material, rights of publicity, protection of a person’s name, image, voice, or likeness.” The new language also exempts “any necessary documentation for enforcement, or a body of common law, that may address, without undue or disproportionate burden, artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems to reasonably effectuate the broader underlying purposes of the law or regulation.” States that go ahead with their laws outside those categories risk losing out on a $500 billion federal fund for broadband, but the restrictions were reduced from ten years to five years.

The ELVIS Act was backed by a coalition of content creators and talent unions, and they are now pushing for passage of a federal law, the No Fakes Act, which would give each individual a right to their likeness and image. But whether that law gets anywhere in Congress is an open question. Even though that legislation is backed by unions, studios and even OpenAI and Google, tech legislation has a history of stalling out amid tech industry lobbying.

Mitch Glazier, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, said in a statement, “We are grateful to Senator Blackburn for her resolute support of the music community and appreciate Senator Cruz amending elements of his proposed moratorium on state-level AI regulation to safeguard both creators and innovators. These meaningful changes to the moratorium will enable states to continue to protect voice and likeness in a tech-driven era as Tennessee’s ELVIS Act does for artists and lays the groundwork for prompt federal action on the bipartisan, bicameral No Fakes Act.”

Still, Democrats are expected to offer up an amendment to strike the AI provision as the Senate engages in a vote-a-rama on Monday, the prelude to a final vote on the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.

One group, the Institute for Law & AI, notes that the revised moratorium restricts laws that put an “undue or disproportionate burden” on AI models. The organization wrote in an analysis on Sunday that “laws like the ELVIS Act likely have a disproportionate burden on AI systems. They almost exclusively target AI systems and outputs, and the effect of the law will almost entirely be borne by AI companies. While trailing qualifiers always vex courts, the fact that ‘undue or disproportionate burden’ is separated from the preceding list by a comma strongly suggests that it qualifies the entire list and not just ‘common law.’”

If the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passes the Senate, it then will go to the House, where Republicans have few votes to spare. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has said that she will vote against the AI moratorium if it is in the final version of the bill. She wrote last week, “Federalism, which our country was founded on, must be preserved at all times! Take it out of the BBB!!!”