From Hollywood to Deepfakes

Elon Musk once said, "we should be very careful about artificial intelligence," as it may be "our biggest existential threat."

In 2020, I was commissioned by the Council of Europe’s European Audiovisual Observatory to consider the impact of AI on personality (publicity) rights issues: ghost acting, life and post-mortem personality rights, and infringement issues including nonconsensual deepfakes. The paper considers personality rights from multiple angles — copyright, brand protection. privacy, reputation, and neighbouring rights — as well as multiple jurisdictions, including California, England, and France.

The Observatory collects, analyses and produces data about the audiovisual industries in Europe, such as cinema, television, audiovisual media services (such as streaming services and video sharing platforms) and public policies related to these sectors.