GUEST COLUMN, Ashley Irwin & David Das, Society of Composers and Lyricists
The House Judiciary Committee just held a hearing on an issue that could shape the future of America's music and media industries.
Congress is considering whether to ban state governments from imposing any restrictions or regulations on artificial intelligence, and they're seeking input from expert witnesses. Big Tech companies and their allies — who unduly dominated the hearing — claim that such a moratorium would help America win the AI race against China and maximize the economic benefits from the new technology.
But in reality, such a ban is both unnecessary and unwise. Ensuring that state governments retain the flexibility to regulate this fast-changing technology is the best way to promote innovation and competition while still protecting American authors, inventors, and small businesses.
Intellectual property rights have fueled American innovation since our country's founding.
Copyrights, for instance, protect original works from being reproduced without the author's permission. They allow composers and songwriters to earn royalties when their songs are played, and they allow authors to earn royalties when their books are sold.
Unfortunately, the unchecked use and development of generative AI is increasingly undermining these longstanding and collectively beneficial rights. These systems are often trained on massive datasets that include music, books, photographs, and other works, without their original creators' consent.
Knockoff AI media is already flooding the market, wreaking havoc on America's creative industries. More than 6 million American jobs that depend on strong copyright protections could be put at risk.
At the same time, however, policymakers must be careful not to curtail the many positive applications of this new technology.
That means we need nuanced policies: ones that encourage productive uses of AI while simultaneously safeguarding against IP-violating abuses.
States — America's "laboratories of democracy," as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously put it — will need to take an even more prominent role in devising balanced policies to guide AI adoption. Tennessee, for instance, recently passed the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, which protects musicians and performers from illicit AI impersonation.
Federal lawmakers are now advancing a similar reform, but on a national level. The NO FAKES Act, which was recently reintroduced by a bipartisan group of senators and representatives, would codify all Americans' right to control their own voice and likeness, and create a legal foundation for fighting back against unauthorized AI "deepfakes." And while we applaud this Act as a step in the right direction, it provides little solace to the creators of the source material: the underlying works, which have been stolen to create the AI models.
There's still more work to be done. In addition to establishing a national standard for protecting individuals' name, image, and likeness rights, policymakers should ensure that creators are protected from their works being absorbed into AI training data without permission.
The AI policy decisions made in the coming years will guide the future of our creative industries, as well as economic, cultural, and scientific progress, for decades to come. State policymakers may not always get it right, but by rejecting attempts to impose an AI moratorium, Congress can ensure they retain the flexibility to adapt — and promote AI development that empowers, not exploits, American creators, workers, and innovators.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS — Ashley Irwin is an Emmy award-winning composer, arranger, musical director, and President of the Society of Composers & Lyricists. David Das is a Grammy-nominated composer and music producer and Vice President of the Society of Composers & Lyricists.
