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Blake, Wm. Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing. 1779.

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Tennessee has become the first U.S. state to enact a law aimed at protecting musicians and artists from the unauthorized use of their work by AI. Under the law, artists have new protection for their voices and can pursue civil action if their voice is illegally used without permission.

The move comes amid growing concern over AI’s capabilities in creating music and other content, potentially infringing on creators’ rights. The new act extends protections to include songwriters, performers, and music industry professionals against AI misuse.

Governor Bill Lee said AI “can rob an individual, these individual artists to whose unique God-given gifts transform people’s lives. It can steal those gifts, it can impersonate those gifts, it can subsequently create fake works that rob those artists of their intellectual property.”