Mark Conrad

Bio:
Dr. Mark Conrad focuses on the intellectual property issues involving AI, focusing on copyright, right of publicity, privacy, and constitutional implications.

Abstract:
The advent and increased use of artificial intelligence tools (“AI”) has resulted in the ease of utilizing digital replicas of people’s images in various media. The growing sophistication of these models has resulted in replicas that are virtually identical to an actual person’s likeness or image. To combat this phenomenon, legislatures in California, New York and Tennessee enacted statutes in 2024 and 2025 to restrict such AI digital replicas without permission of the person in question or his/her estate. The scope and level of protection granted in these statutes varies.  This presentation will compare the approaches utilized by these new laws. 

This presentation will first summarize the laws and then address the issues that are bound to occur. As has been the case in more traditional right of publicity laws, there remains an underlying tension between First Amendment freedom of expression and the protection of the identity of the individuals from commercial misappropriation. Interpretation questions may result in court challenges, that may focus on how “commercial” the use is, and whether any of the provision may violate constitutional free speech protection. In conclusion, I will analyze whether all or part of these new laws can survive such challenges.