Senate hearing spotlights harms of AI deepfakes and advances No Fakes Act

The Senate Judiciary subcommittee convened a hearing titled “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” to examine harms from AI-generated deepfakes and the proposed No Fakes Act (S.1367), with creators, industry and consumer advocates testifying about the bill’s potential to protect voices and likenesses.

The hearing’s organizers said the bill would give individuals a civil remedy and a practical removal pathway for unauthorized digital replicas of voice and image, extending protections the Senate on Monday advanced in criminal takedown law. "It's frightening, and it's wrong," said Martina McBride, the country singer, describing how AI replicas could be used to harass, defraud or misrepresent artists.

Why it matters: witnesses and senators tied the issue to economic and safety impacts — from music industry revenues to scams and nonconsensual explicit content involving minors — and urged Congress to act before the technology and marketplace make harms harder to remedy. Several witnesses described a mix of policy, platform and enforcement steps as necessary: federal legislation that creates civil remedies; stronger agency resources to police scams; and platform mechanisms to identify and remove harmful content.

Testimony and evidence

Martina McBride, identified in her testimony as a Nashville singer-songwriter, described personal and industry harms if AI allows others to replicate artists’ voices and likenesses without consent. "The No Fakes Act would give each of us the ability to say…