What do Taylor Swift and Matthew McConaughey have in common, apart from box-office success? Both have trademarked their voice and likeness in an effort to foil future AI deepfakes.
McConaughey did it in January with eight trademark applications in the US to – in his words – “create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world”.
Now trademark-focused law firm Gerben IP has reported on Swift’s filings, which were made on 24 April.
One focuses on her likeness: an image of Swift on-stage in one of her Eras Tour outfits. Two more are ‘sound marks’ of Swift saying ‘Hey, it’s Taylor Swift’ and ‘Hey, it’s Taylor’.
“While existing ‘Right of Publicity’ laws offer some protection against unauthorized use of a famous individual’s likeness, trademark filings can provide an additional layer of protection,” noted Gerben IP’s post.
“Theoretically, if a lawsuit were to be filed over an AI using Swift’s voice, she could claim that any use of her voice that sounds like the registered trademark violates her trademark rights.”
Swift has already been at the sharp end of deepfakery online several times. In early 2024 some sexually-explicit deepfaked images of her went viral on X, sparking a fan campaign in her defence.
More recently, X’s Grok chatbot was found to be creating topless videos of Swift when requested by users, and a YouTube channel called New Songs Haven published what claimed to be a “new music video” by Swift that was actually a deepfake.
