One provision currently in Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" would strip states of the right to regulate Artificial Intelligence for the next 10 years. That would be a disaster for artists like me.
Personally, I have already been adversely affected by illegal actions by technology companies using AI to steal my work. Both my book Romantic Actors, Romantic Dramas and a review I wrote for Theatre Journal have been confirmed to have been stolen by Meta in order to train AI systems without my consent and without any compensation.
Yup, not only did Meta mine copyrighted material to train AI, but they never even paid for that material. Given that the federal government has done nothing to stop tech companies from pillaging intellectual property, the states remain perhaps our most valuable line of defense against high-tech thieves using trendy terms like "AI" as a cloak to hide their blatantly illegal actions.
This is not a partisan issue. The blocking of state regulation of AI would seem to be a direct attack on red-state Tennessee's ELVIS Act, which was designed to protect vocalists (including Nashville stars) from the use of AI to clone voices and likenesses without people's consent. That law was passed just last year with backing from the actor's union SAG-AFTRA, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the Music Artists Coalition, among others.
Actors and vocalists--as well as directors, choreographers, dancers, teachers, audio book narrators, and countless others--use human talent to inform, educate, and entertain people around the world. When we allow AI to steal their work and replace human performance with a computerized simulacrum, we debase what it means to be a human being.
The federal government didn't prevent authors like me from being ripped off by AI-powered plagiarism machines. Now, it is trying to prevent the states from protecting any of us from high-tech theft. Congress needs to strip this provision from the small-minded and ugly bill now being considered in Washington.
