Setting the Legal Tone: Exploring voice rights and AI

AI is not always what it seems. AI deep fakes create ‘misuse’ of an individual’s personal image but little is known about whether this ‘personal image’ includes the voice. Despite emphasis on the legal and ethical implications of rights pertaining to image and voice (see the SAG “Actors strike”), the legal and ethical implications of this are relatively under-explored. Many of the existing intellectual property tools which have been successful in protecting intangible concepts fail when it comes to protecting the voice - particularly the voice of the ordinary person. With a focus on the creative industries, we seek to understand the characteristics of the voice and how to protect it by understanding the legal, linguistic and ethical dimensions of ‘personality of the voice’. In this project we ask; what are the characteristics of personality in voice and can they be protected? And can a framework concerning the rights and responsibilities of voice personality be developed?