SAG-AFTRA members signed an open letter calling for Congress to pass the NO FAKES Act, and the letter has drawn more than 16,000 signatures, TheWrap and Variety report. SAG-AFTRA president Sean Astin said in a statement, "Unchecked AI can ruin lives," and SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland called the bill "common sense, long-overdue federal protection." The bipartisan bill, which was reintroduced last month after stalling in Senate committees last year, would give all individuals control over their name, voice and likeness and establish a federal prohibition on unauthorized deepfakes and other generative AI misuse. Senate co-sponsors include Sens. Chris Coons, Amy Klobuchar, Marsha Blackburn, and Thom Tillis; House sponsors are Reps. Madeleine Dean and Maria Salazar, all Senate co-sponsors sitting on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will address the bill on Thursday. Public supporters include the AFL-CIO, YouTube, IBM, OpenAI, the Motion Picture Association, the Recording Academy, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the RIAA.
What happened
SAG-AFTRA members signed an open letter urging Congress to pass the NO FAKES Act, and the letter has gathered more than 16,000 signatures, TheWrap and Variety report. SAG-AFTRA president Sean Astin said in a statement, "Unchecked AI can ruin lives. Americans are demanding that the Federal Government take sensible action. The NO FAKES Act would establish a fundamental protection to control their own voice and likeness." SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland added, "Rarely does legislation earn this kind of cross-sector support. The NO FAKES Act represents common sense, long-overdue federal protection, and Congress now has both the opportunity and the obligation to pass it." Per Variety, the bill was reintroduced last month by its bipartisan co-sponsors after it stalled in a Senate committee, following a year after Congress passed the Take It Down Act banning nonconsensual intimate images, including AI-generated ones.
Bill scope and sponsors
The NO FAKES Act would give all individuals, regardless of public-figure status, control over how their name, voice, and likeness are used, and establish a federal prohibition on unauthorized deepfakes and other generative AI misuse. Bipartisan Senate co-sponsors include Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.); House sponsors include Reps. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.) and Madeleine Dean (D-Penn.). All four Senate co-sponsors sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will address the bill on Thursday, per TheWrap. Public supporters include the AFL-CIO, YouTube, IBM, OpenAI, the Motion Picture Association, the Recording Academy, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the RIAA.
Technical context
Industry observers note that proposed federal legislation defining unauthorized use of likeness or voice intersects with several engineering requirements: attribution of synthetic content, robustness of deepfake detection, watermarking standards, and provenance metadata. For practitioners, any passed version of the bill would create compliance work around content labeling, opt-in mechanisms, and user rights management even if the bill is amended in committee.
What to watch
Observers should follow the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday for amendments and testimony that could alter scope or enforcement mechanisms. Also watch for technical witnesses or standards bodies cited during hearings, and for whether lawmakers specify requirements such as mandatory watermarking, civil versus criminal penalties, or minimum provenance metadata standards.
Scoring Rationale #
The NO FAKES Act, with bipartisan sponsors, 16,000+ signatures, and broad tech-labor coalition backing, represents notable regulatory momentum on deepfakes. The bill is still at committee stage, limiting immediate impact, but Thursday's Senate Judiciary hearing and cross-sector support make it a significant policy development for AI practitioners to track.
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