Expert Institute
By Andrés Buenahora
August 27th, 2025
Exploring the legal, contractual, and federal challenges of AI-driven celebrity likeness—from state statutes to the proposed “No Fakes Act.”
Due to advancements in artificial technology, Hollywood studios can now digitally recreate deceased actors. Instances of AI resurrecting dead actors, however, are leading to legal ramifications surrounding intellectual property law.
The Core Issue: Who Owns a Digital Ghost?
The right of publicity, protecting an individual’s commercial interest in their name, image, voice, and likeness, emerged from Warren and Brandeis’s seminal privacy framework but has evolved into a distinctly property-based doctrine. California Civil Code Section 3344 and the common law recognize this as an inheritable asset, with California extending protection 70 years post-mortem while Indiana provides a century of coverage. But other states like New York only recently enacted legislation to address the digital resurrection of actors. In many other territories, the protection simply doesn’t exist, or has not yet been tested in court.
As studios stockpile data on actors’ faces, voices, and mannerisms, the risk of unauthorized digital performances, particularly of deceased talent, becomes highly likely.
Until recently, most conflicts surrounding AI and posthumous performances have been either resolved through confidential settlements or avoided altogether through risk-averse business practices. While California maintains some of the nation’s most robust protections for post-mortem publicity rights of deceased individuals, how these statutory frameworks apply to AI-generated content remains uncertain.
The celebrity likeness rights doctrine, as it applies to digital contexts, awaits definitive judicial interpretation that will undoubtedly shape industry practices going forward.
Some studios are beginning to update their talent agreements. Newer contracts often include AI-specific provisions requiring actors to affirmatively grant or deny permission for digital replicas, and sometimes setting rates or royalties for future use. These clauses are now becoming a standard part of negotiations, particularly with high-profile talent.
There is a clear financial incentive to employing artificial intelligence in the scope of celebrity likeness rights. AI-generated performances are already being used in commercials, video games, and branded content.
