{"id":2420,"date":"2026-06-18T12:05:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2420"},"modified":"2026-06-18T12:05:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:05:51","slug":"ai-needs-guardrails-the-no-fakes-act-can-create-them-guest-post-by-lyor-cohen-and-harvey-mason-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2420","title":{"rendered":"AI Needs Guardrails \u2014 the NO FAKES Act Can Create Them: Guest Post by Lyor Cohen and Harvey Mason Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n<em>The \u201cNO FAKES\u201d Act of 2026 (\u201cNurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe\u201d) would establish an intellectual property right by which individuals could authorize or block digital replicas of their voice and likeness. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on whether to advance the bill today \u2014 June 18, 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2418\">\u2018A Brighter Word Than Bright,\u2019 From Turkish Director Belkis Bayrak, Explores Grief, Resilience in Lives Shattered by Suicide<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n<em>In the guest post below, Lyor Cohen, YouTube\u2019s global head of music (and formerly a top executive at Warner Music, Def Jam Records and Rush Management), and Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy (and a veteran musician, songwriter and producer), make their case for the bill\u2019s importance. The pair spoke on the subject at a Grammys on the Hill event in April.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<em>Variety welcomes responsible commentary \u2014 contact music@variety.com if interested.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tBetween us, we\u2019ve spent the better part of six decades fighting for artists. One from inside the industry\u2019s biggest stages \u2014 Def Jam, YouTube \u2014 and one who went from the recording studio to the helm of music\u2019s highest institution. We\u2019re not always certain on where the industry is going, but on this, there\u2019s no debate: Artists have to win or nothing works.\u202f<\/p>\n<p>\n\tArtificial intelligence is putting that principle to the test.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tChange is inevitable, the music industry has never let us forget it. With change comes unintended consequences. But how you respond defines your convictions \u2014 and right now, it could define the trajectory of the industry, and artists\u2019 seat at the table.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWe\u2019ve been here before. When digital distribution reshaped the economics of recorded music, the instinct was to sue and litigate. Some of that was necessary. But the thing that actually rebuilt the ecosystem was infrastructure and partnership, the kind that created opportunities for artists in the new economy.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tYouTube was inside that chaos. The same platform that now reaches 2 billion people a month was once a destination for unauthorized music. The answer was infrastructure. Artists and rightsholders got a suite of tools to control their work; a dashboard that turned every unauthorized use into a decision only they could make: what stays up, what comes down, and how their work could actually pay the bills. That\u2019s the model for what comes next. Not just a legal right, but the infrastructure to exercise it.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe AI tools emerging across the industry are powerful \u2014 and in the right hands, genuinely expanding what\u2019s possible. A bedroom producer in Lagos now has access to capabilities that would have required a major-label budget a few years ago. When artists are in control of these tools, the results compound.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tBut there\u2019s something else worth protecting, something harder to quantify than a catalog or a royalty stream. An artist\u2019s voice. Their identity. The thing that took a lifetime to build.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tIn April 2023, a song called \u201cHeart on My Sleeve\u201d started circulating online. It sounded exactly like Drake and the Weeknd \u2014 the cadence, the tone, the texture of their voices. Millions streamed it. It was a parlor trick that became a proof of concept for an identity heist. Neither artist was asked. Neither was credited.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2416\">How \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 Spent an Entire Year as a Blockbuster for Netflix (EXCLUSIVE)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThat moment landed differently for both of us. Not because the song was good or bad, but because nobody had a clean answer for what had actually happened, or what rule had been broken. And that\u2019s the point. This wasn\u2019t exactly a traditional copyright situation. Drake and the Weeknd hadn\u2019t made a song that someone copied. They hadn\u2019t made anything. What was taken wasn\u2019t a work. It was them: their voices, their identities, the instruments they\u2019d spent their whole lives developing.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tCopyright law has always been about works. Things you make. The logic is intuitive: you created it, you own it, you decide what happens to it. But your voice isn\u2019t a work. It is not copyrightable. Your face isn\u2019t a sample.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWhen AI can replicate either \u2014 convincingly, instantly, at scale \u2014 the question isn\u2019t just who profits. It\u2019s also who decides. Right now, the answer depends on what state you live in. A patchwork of state right-of-publicity laws wasn\u2019t built for this, and it isn\u2019t equal. There is no federal standard.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThat was two years ago. The tools are now faster, cheaper, and more convincing than they were even six months ago. Yet the rules remain stuck in the past. Every month without a federal standard is a month the industry normalizes a culture we will spend decades trying to walk back.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThat\u2019s the gap this moment requires us to close.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe NO FAKES Act \u2014 a federal right to control AI replicas of your voice and likeness \u2014 is the legal foundation this moment requires. This week, the Senate votes on whether to move it forward. Congress should seize the moment, and show that it\u2019s possible to drive innovation forward while putting common sense protections in place.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThis legal protection is necessary, but it\u2019s just the first step. The law alone doesn\u2019t build industries. The question isn\u2019t just whether artists are protected, but whether they trust the ecosystem enough to build in it. When they do, everyone benefits. When they don\u2019t, the tools get used around them instead of with them.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThat\u2019s why the infrastructure has to be universal. YouTube has built likeness detection technology that automatically identifies when an artist\u2019s likeness is being used without permission. But an artist protected on one platform is still vulnerable on another. Every platform where fans can upload content needs to meet the same high bar \u2014 not just because the law might eventually demand it, but because the alternative is an ecosystem artists will eventually abandon.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThese aren\u2019t roadblocks for innovation. They\u2019re the conditions that make innovation worth something. The technology is here. The only question left is are we going to protect the creators.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2414\">JioHotstar Sees AI, Connected TV and Commerce Driving India\u2019s Next Streaming Phase<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tYour voice, your rules. That\u2019s the principle. Everything else follows.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The &#8216;NO FAKES&#8217; Act, with AI safeguards, has a Senate vote today \u2014 here, YouTube&#8217;s Lyor Cohen and Grammy chief Harvey Mason Jr. make a case for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[2054,2055,2056],"class_list":["post-2420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital","tag-harvey-mason-jr","tag-lyor-cohen","tag-no-fakes-act"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>AI Needs Guardrails \u2014 the NO FAKES Act Can Create Them: Guest Post by Lyor Cohen and Harvey Mason Jr. - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2420\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AI Needs Guardrails \u2014 the NO FAKES Act Can Create Them: Guest Post by Lyor Cohen and Harvey Mason Jr. - 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