YouTube has collaborated with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), one of the world’s largest talent agencies, to develop a technology that allows famous actors and athletes to manage their digital likenesses created with artificial intelligence. “Through this collaboration, some of the world’s most influential people will have access to early-stage technology to detect and moderate AI-generated content on YouTube that includes their faces or other likenesses,” YouTube said in a statement on its official blog.
YouTube plans to test this “similarity management technology” first on top athletes affiliated with CAA, such as award-winning players and NBA and NFL stars. The system will scan content created with artificial intelligence, allowing relevant people to easily identify this content and submit removal requests through YouTube’s privacy complaint process.
Thanks to CAA’s large and influential customer network, YouTube plans to obtain significant data before rolling out the technology to a wider audience. It is stated that in the future, this innovation will also be offered to popular YouTube content producers, creative professionals and other talent agencies.
In its blog post, YouTube described CAA as an ideal first partner for this technology. With its service called CAAvault, the agency is a pioneer in the industry in scanning and securely storing digital similarities of its customers such as face, body and voice.
YouTube will spark controversy with its new technology
Discussions about artificial intelligence and digital rights are increasingly intense, especially in Hollywood. While some celebrities accept the licensed use of their voices by artificial intelligence, many people oppose these technologies. For example, Lisa Kudrow, the star of the TV series Friends, recently criticized the use of digital versions of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in the movie Here during a podcast broadcast, saying, “This is an artificial intelligence approval. What will be left for the people, especially the rising players? It will just be licensing and reuse. Where are the real jobs for people?” he said.
Both the ethical and legal dimensions of digital content production with AI pose new challenges, especially with technologies such as large language models (LLMs). This new technology of YouTube seems to further fuel the discussions in this area.