Taylor Swift files to trademark her voice and image amid AI concerns | Ents & Arts News

Taylor Swift has applied to trademark her voice and image amid growing concerns around AI-generated content.

The Shake It Off singer submitted three applications in the US last week to trademark her voice and likeness, including an image of herself during the Eras tour wearing a sparkly bodysuit and playing a pink guitar, as well as two audio clips of her introducing herself while promoting her most recent album, The Life Of A Showgirl.

The move comes following a targeting of Swift through AI-generated content in recent years, including fake clips of her promoting a cookware brand, sexually suggestive deepfakes, and Donald Trump sharing doctored photos of her supporting his run for president.

Trademark attorney Josh Gerben said while protecting sound isn’t a new concept, involving spoken voice through audio clips hasn’t been tested in US courts before.

He said the applications could provide her with an “additional layer of protection”.

“By registering specific phrases tied to her voice, Swift could potentially challenge not only identical reproductions but also imitations that are ‘confusingly similar’, a key standard in trademark law,” he explained.

“The image-based filing serves a similar purpose: by protecting a distinctive visual, down to Swift’s commonly worn jumpsuit and pose, Swift’s team may gain additional grounds to pursue claims against manipulated or AI-generated images that evoke her likeness.”

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Mr Gerben said that historically, artists would either use copyright law to protect their music or right-of-publicity laws to protect their likeness or image, but AI has broken that model.

“Now, anyone can spin up a version of an artist’s voice, have it say anything, attach it to anything and distribute it at scale. That’s where trademarks come in,” he said.

Swift isn’t the only celebrity confronting issues of AI-generated content, as tools become more sophisticated despite AI companies adding guardrails to prevent harmful use.

Earlier this year, actor Matthew McConaughey told The Wall Street Journal he had trademarked his voice and image to protect his likeness from unauthorised use by AI.

Other stars to raise concerns over AI misuse include Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston.