Two bills protecting artists against AI have bipartisan support in Illinois
With unanimous support, two bill protecting artists from having their content stolen through the means of artificial intelligence passed in the Illinois Senate.
Sen. Mary Edly-Allen, D-Libertyville, led both bills — House Bill 4762 and House Bill 4875. Since they were amended in the Senate, both pieces of legislation will return to the House on a concurrence vote.
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The former would order an artist to be represented by legal counsel or labor union when negotiating terms, thus avoiding the potential for a contractor to replace them with AI-generated content in the artist's likeness.
It comes as songs produced by the technology to sound like big name artists such as Drake and The Weeknd have gone viral. Replicas of songs would still be protected under the legislation.
HB 4875, on the other hand, would grant artists the right to seek legal action if their content is replicated without their consent.
Edly-Allen said during floor debate Friday that extensive conversations have occurred to ensure a balance between artist rights and AI creators, moves appreciated by Senate Minority Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove.
"This bill protects artists' ability to control their voice, image and likeness while still providing necessary exemptions to allow for artistic creation," she said.
Those exemptions include the material use in news or sports broadcasts, political ads, or parody. Further amendments to bill clarify that parties not knowingly distributing the AI-generated material would not be held liable, this helping opposition parties come to neutral.
Lawmakers are considering a host of AI-related bills this session in addition to the two last week.
One would clarify that child pornography created with AI is prohibited under state law, a measure backed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and another would prohibit the use of political deepfakes that falsely represents a candidate intending to hurt their electability within 90 days of an election.
Contact Patrick M. Keck: 312-549-9340, pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Bipartisan support for bills regulating AI-generated content in Illinois
