Generative AI: Rethinking the Legal Rights of the Deceased

University at Buffalo
By Charles Anzalone
January 24th, 2024

As generative AI brings dead celebrities back to life, we must rethink the rights of the deceased…

In the United States, legal rights protecting the reputation of the deceased have traditionally been limited. That’s because once you’re dead, the theory goes, you’re incapable of being embarrassed or emotionally harmed.

The rise of artificial intelligence, with its ability to easily bring dead celebrities and others back to life in ways nearly identical to their living presence, is prompting a shift in this long-held legal concept.

Changes are due in privacy, consumer protection and property laws, University at Buffalo legal scholar Mark Bartholomew says

In most states, including New York, if you want to bequeath the right to commercially license your name and likeness to your heirs after you die, the law will recognize that transfer of rights for a limited post-mortem period…

The difficulty in discerning who is alive and who is dead on our computer screens thanks to AI brings up important issues of consumer protection and what should happen to our reputations after we are gone.

Mark Bartholomew, Professor, University at Buffalo School of Law

An expert in artificial intelligence and copyright law, Bartholomew answered questions on how AI has blurred the line between the living and the dead, and how this could reshape multiple areas of the law.