Taylor Swift moves to trademark voice, image after AI concerns

American singer and songwriter Taylor Swift, has moved to trademark her voice and appearance to protect herself from impersonations generated by artificial intelligence, AI.

The singer has lodged three trademark applications in the US using photos of herself during a stage performance and audio clips of her introducing herself.

Trademark lawyer Josh Gerben, explained that artists registering their trademarks could allow them to stop AI from using her image and voice more generally.

By registering specific phrases tied to her voice, Swift could potentially challenge not only identical reproductions, but also imitations that are ‘confusingly similar,’ a key standard in trademark law. 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. Same with the image filing. If someone creates an AI-generated version of Taylor in a jumpsuit with a guitar, or something close to it, now Swift has a federal trademark claim,” he stated in his blog.

This will not be the first time an artist makes this strategic move as Matthew McConaughey had also previously applied to protect his voice and image from AI misuse earlier this year.