Deceptive AI-generated replicas raise concerns for performers and other public figures, who receive compensation for certain uses of their likenesses, such as use in advertising. In a vast array of cases, however, use of other people’s images—in news articles, commentary, creative art, and elsewhere—is First Amendment protected speech of the user or publisher of the image.

These uses are part of the free flow of information in everyday American life, and do not require payment or even permission. While existing law addresses most of these image harms, Congress should consider narrowly targeted fixes for gaps where images are abused.

The NO FAKES Act, however, is neither targeted nor proportionate.

Introduced by Sens. Coons, Blackburn, Klobuchar and Tillis, NO FAKES Act grants a brand-new federal intellectual property right to allow companies or individuals to sue anyone who makes or uses an image of them that they don’t like, AI-generated or not. It even allows a person’s heirs to sue, going out 70 years.