The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the NO FAKES Act this week, moving the country closer to federal protections against unauthorized AI-generated replicas of a person's voice, image, or likeness.

 

What happened

The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the Nurture Originals, Foster Art and Keep Entertainment Safe Act on June 26, 2026. The bill would give individuals control over their digital identities and legal recourse when someone uses a deepfake of them without permission. It would grant citizens near-exclusive rights to their own AI replicas, and those rights would pass to heirs, executors, and estates for at least 70 years after a person dies. People who choose to authorize use of their likeness could license it out, with the bill proposing 10-year licensing contracts for adults and five-year contracts for minors. The bill would also create statutory damages of up to $750,000 per violation and hold individuals, companies, and in some cases platforms liable for producing or hosting an unauthorized digital replica.

 

The backstory

Representatives Maria Salazar and Madeleine Dean introduced the bipartisan legislation in the House in 2024. Senators Marsha Blackburn and Chris Coons have led the effort in the Senate. The bill has drawn support from labor unions, tech companies such as IBM, OpenAI, YouTube, entertainment industry groups, and medical organizations such as the American Medical Association.

 

What was said

Representative Maria Salazar said, "Today's unanimous vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee is a major step forward for Americans who deserve to know that their image, voice and likeness cannot be stolen or used without their permission. AI is moving fast, and that is exciting. But no one should have to worry that their face or voice can be copied, manipulated or used to deceive others."

Vikram Desai, global cybersecurity strategy and risk lead at Accenture, said synthetic voice and video are used to impersonate executives and authorize fraudulent transactions. He added, "That has big implications for companies around the world, who continue to see emerging tech pose real dangers to their businesses. Boardrooms everywhere need to enact strong verification controls within their companies to prevent deepfakes from impacting their operations. Deepfakes can trick anyone, so it's up to all of us to stay vigilant."

 

Why it matters

This bill matters to security teams specifically because it turns a problem CISOs have mostly handled through internal policy into a matter of federal liability. Under NO FAKES, platforms could also be held liable for hosting an unauthorized likeness, meaning the exposure isn't limited to whoever falls for the scam. It also means CISOs may soon need to prove they had verification systems in place, not just that they trained staff, since compliance obligations could follow if the bill becomes law.

 

The bottom line

The NO FAKES Act hasn't passed yet, but its advancement out of committee signals that federal rules on AI-generated likenesses are coming. Security leaders should treat deepfake defense as more than an awareness problem.

 

FAQs

What is a deepfake?

A deepfake is synthetic audio, video, or an image generated by AI to convincingly mimic a real person's voice, face, or likeness.

 

How is a federal right of publicity different from existing state laws?

State right-of-publicity laws differ and only cover residents of that state, while a federal law would set one uniform standard across the country.

 

What counts as out-of-band authentication?

Out-of-band authentication verifies a request, like a wire transfer, through a separate communication channel than the one used to make the request, such as a phone call confirming an email instruction.

 

Why would minors get shorter licensing terms than adults under a likeness law?

Shorter terms for minors limit how long a company can commercially use a child's likeness before requiring renewed consent as they grow older.