A bipartisan group of senators has introduced the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED Act) to protect journalists and artists.

AI models require massive amounts of data for training purposes, with many of those models trained on content that is available on the internet. The ethics of the practice are among the most hotly debated topics in the industry, with multiple lawsuits attempting to settle the questions.

The COPIED Act—introduced by Senators Maria Cantwell, Marsha Blackburn, and Martin Heinrich—would protect journalists, actors, artists, and songwriters, giving them control over their content. The COPIED Act provides four distinct protections:

• Creates Transparency Standards: Requires the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop guidelines and standards for content provenance information, watermarking, and synthetic content detection. These standards will promote transparency to identify if content has been generated or manipulated by AI as well as where AI content originated. The bill also directs NIST to develop cybersecurity measures to prevent tampering with provenance and watermarking on AI content.
• Puts Journalists, Artists, and Musicians in Control of Their Content: Requires providers of AI tools used to generate creative or journalistic content to allow owners of that content to attach provenance information to it and prohibits its removal. The bill prohibits the unauthorized use of content with provenance information to train AI models or generate AI content. These measures give content owners—journalists, newspapers, artists, songwriters, and others—the ability to protect their work and set the terms of use for their content, including compensation.
• Gives Individuals a Right to Sue Violators: Authorizes the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general to enforce the bill’s requirements. It also gives newspapers, broadcasters, artists, and other content owners the right to bring suit in court against platforms or others who use their content without permission.
• Prohibits Tampering with or Disabling AI Provenance Information: Currently, there is no law that prohibits removing, disabling, or tampering with content provenance information. The bill prohibits anyone, including internet platforms, search engines, and social media companies, from interfering with content provenance information in these ways.

“The bipartisan COPIED Act I introduced with Senator Blackburn and Senator Heinrich, will provide much-needed transparency around AI-generated content,” said Senator Cantwell. “The COPIED Act will also put creators, including local journalists, artists and musicians, back in control of their content with a provenance and watermark process that I think is very much needed.”

“Artificial intelligence has given bad actors the ability to create deepfakes of every individual, including those in the creative community, to imitate their likeness without their consent and profit off of counterfeit content,” continued Senator Blackburn. “The COPIED Act takes an important step to better defend common targets like artists and performers against deepfakes and other inauthentic content.”

“Deepfakes are a real threat to our democracy and to Americans’ safety and well-being,” added Senator Heinrich. “I’m proud to support Senator Cantwell’s COPIED Act that will provide the technical tools needed to help crack down on harmful and deceptive AI-generated content and better protect professional journalists and artists from having their content used by AI systems without their consent. Congress needs to step up and pass this legislation to protect the American people.”

If the COPIED Act passes and is signed into law, it will revolutionize the AI industry and finally provide journalists and creatives the protections they need.