Tennessee outlaws unauthorized AI voice clones

Last year, an anonymous creator dropped an AI-generated track called "Heart on My Sleeve" featuring flawless vocal clones of Drake and The Weeknd. Universal Music Group scrambled to scrub it from TikTok and Spotify using copyright strikes, but everyone in the industry quietly realized a terrifying truth: copyright protects songs and master recordings, not a singer's actual voice.

Now, Tennessee just stepped up to close that loophole.

On Thursday, Governor Bill Lee signed the ELVIS Act (Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act), making Tennessee the first state in the nation to enact specific legal protections safeguarding artists from unauthorized AI voice cloning.

The governor signed the bill inside Robert's Western World, a legendary honky-tonk on Nashville's Broadway strip, surrounded by country stars Luke Bryan and Chris Janson. Bryan called the move an amazing precedent to get in front of emerging tech, praising the state for protecting what artists have worked hard to build.

The bill officially takes effect on July 1.

Giving old laws an AI overhaul

Tennessee did not attempt to build a massive, bureaucratic tech regulation from scratch. Instead, lawmakers smartly updated the state's existing right-of-publicity statutes.

The previous law already shielded a creator's name, photograph, and likeness. The ELVIS Act simply modernizes that foundation by adding "voice" to the list, with explicit protections targeting unauthorized AI impersonation.

For Tennessee, the stakes could not be higher. According to the governor's office, the state's music sector sustains more than 61,000 jobs and powers over 4,500 live music venues. This is the birthplace of global icons from Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton to B.B. King and Taylor Swift. Protecting artists is literally protecting the state's economy.

The music business itself remains split on how to treat generative audio. While labels fight unauthorized clones, producers used AI tools to clean up John Lennon's vocal track for The Beatles' final song, "Now and Then," released late last year. Indie star Grimes took the opposite route, actively encouraging fans to clone her voice in exchange for a 50% royalty split on hit tracks.

Tennessee's legislation does not ban synthetic voices entirely; it simply restores consent and ownership.

Why it matters

For vocalists, voice actors, and public figures, this bill delivers a real legal weapon. Instead of relying on murky trademark claims or waiting for platforms to take down impersonations out of goodwill, creators now have a direct legal claim when someone clones their vocal identity without permission.

For AI developers and audio generation startups, the grey area is officially shrinking. Building voice-cloning tools on scrapings of famous artists is turning into a massive liability. Platforms hosting user-generated audio will now face heavier pressure to deploy voice detection mechanisms to avoid state-level lawsuits.

We think Tennessee's approach is remarkably pragmatic. Rather than trying to govern how AI models are trained or bottlenecking the broader tech race, lawmakers treated a voice as a personal property right that can be defended in court. However, the obvious catch is enforcement. Because the law only covers Tennessee, we believe it will quickly expose the cracks of a fragmented, state-by-state regulatory landscape until the U.S. Congress passes a federal standard.