A visitor films a life-like head during Security China 2023 in Beijing,Ng Han Guan/The Associated Press
Marie Kelly is the national executive director and chief negotiator of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists.
Canada is falling behind.
Last week, a bi-partisan group of Senators in the United States introduced the NO FAKES Act, a bill with the stated goal to “protect the voice and visual likenesses of individuals from unfair use through generative artificial intelligence.”
What is incredible is that this bill not only has support from both Democrats and Republicans, but across the audiovisual industry, with supporting statements from organizations including OpenAI, the Walt Disney Company, the Motion Picture Association, and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which is the actors’ union.
Meanwhile, SAG-AFTRA’s counterpart in Canada, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), has lobbied Parliament for similar legislation – to no avail. The union has had individual conversations with politicians, briefs to Parliamentary committees and meetings with government staff. And Ottawa continues to drag its heels.
In the entertainment business, a performer’s reputation, including their name, image and likeness, is all they have. They are their own brand, which they must protect.
In Canada, we have already seen examples of the harmful use of generative AI. The voice performer Ellen Dubin had her voice stolen from a video game and modified without her consent for use on a deep fake porn site. This news came as a shock. Ellen had worked on the popular game 12 years ago, playing more than 80 characters. This has also happened to other Canadian actors, including a minor.
This is appalling.
The need to protect individuals from the unfair use of their name, image and likeness, is therefore not a difficult proposition, or limited to performers. Deep fakes have been weaponized for bullying in schools and misinformation in political campaigns, to name two common scenarios, leading the U.S. Copyright Office to issue a report last week that called for a “robust nationwide remedy” to address “the substantial harm not only in the entertainment and political arenas, but also for private individuals.”
Everyone agrees that this is an area where governments must step in.
Performers across Canada in the audio and audiovisual industries have sounded the alarm. While there are positives to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in our industry, performers are increasingly concerned about its unbridled and unmitigated use to harmfully affect their ability to work and make a living.
In ACTRA’s largest survey ever outside of collective bargaining in November, 2023, performers were clear: 98 per cent of respondents were concerned about the potential misuse of their name, image, and likeness by AI; and, 93 per cent were concerned that AI will eventually replace human actors.
Canada has pending legislation to address AI. But Bill C-27, which includes the proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act and is expected to be debated this fall, is not a perfect bill. It does some good things: It requires consent for the use of biometric information and puts a framework in place to ensure AI developers take action to prevent harm from their technologies. It does not, however, specifically address deep fakes.
We need a change to the Copyright Act to ensure that performers have the same moral rights to their work that musical performers do. Under Canadian law, musicians have the right to protect their songs from being stolen or misused but actors cannot protect their performance – a glaring problem in the face of the uprise in deep fakes. This is unfounded and unfair, and the federal government has an obligation to amend the act to rectify this.
The bottom line is that it is time for the Government of Canada to step in, just as our neighbours to the south have. There can be no more time wasted on partisan spats, procedural delays, or unhelpful tangents. This is not a partisan issue: It is one that affects all Canadians, including performers across our country.
This is the time. Without swift action in Parliament this fall, Canada will fall further behind, and all Canadians will be worse for it.