Taylor Swift v. Donald Trump: AI Images and Legal Consequences

Taylor Swift clearly has credible causes of action against Donald Trump for his false and misleading social media posts. Donald Trump posted to his own Truth Social platform several AI-generated images which falsely suggested that Taylor Swift had endorsed him for president. The post contained several photographs showing women in t-shirts with the “Swifties for Trump” slogan printed on the front. Some of these photographs clearly appeared to have been generated by AI, including several originally posted by a satire website. However, the most prominent image showed Taylor Swift herself, dressed as Uncle Sam in the style of a World War II-era recruiting poster, bearing a clear message: “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” At the top of the post, Trump himself responded to the apparent endorsement: “I accept!”

These photographs sparked understandable outrage among the legions of fans of the superstar who has long been an outspoken critic of the ex-president. Though she has not yet endorsed a candidate in 2024, Swift supported Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris in 2020, and Swift blasted Trump for “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism” and urged her fans to vote him out of office

Trump's social media posts could give rise to numerous causes of action by Swift. On its face, Trump’s fake endorsement post most obviously violates Swift’s right of publicity, the legal power to control how your name, image and likeness is used by others. While the explosive growth of AI tools has made it easier to convincingly mimic real people, lawmakers have scrambled to empower individuals like Swift to better protect their right of publicity. The federal NO FAKES Act, currently under debate in Congress, would make it illegal to publish a “digital replica” of someone’s likeness without their express consent, including one's voice or image. Trump’s post, which showed a realistic, AI-generated replica of Swift’s image without her consent, would almost certainly violate that new federal law. However, even without the NO FAKES Act, states across the country already protect the right of publicity and would likely give Swift grounds to sue Trump and his campaign on that basis. A trademark infringement and false advertising claim under the Lanham Act would be another credible cause of action for Swift. She may also have a cause of action against Trump for defamation, alleging that the false presidential endorsement harms her reputation. However, such litigation could be costly and time-consuming, and Trump has potential defenses such as pointing the finger at those who originally created the images or arguing that his posts were free speech shielded by the First Amendment.

Rather than go down that long and winding litigation road, the best way for Taylor Swift to fight the false endorsement might not be in a court of law but in the court of public opinion. Swift should fight Trump’s fake endorsement with a legitimate endorsement of her own, broadcast across social media to her millions of faithful fans, many of whom are of voting age. That would be a remedy far beyond what any court could grant, and one that would likely hurt Trump far more than any Judge could do by issuing a legal ruling from the bench.

Wallace Collins is an entertainment lawyer and intellectual property attorney based in New York with over 30 years experience in music, film, television and emerging technology, and he handles many digital media matters including issues that arise with AI. He was a songwriter and recording artist for Epic Records before receiving his law degree from Fordham Law School. Website: http://www.wallacecollins.com

BEWARE: OpenAI's "Sora" Text-To-Video AI Model May Be The Most Dangerous Threat Yet!

Sora is an AI model from OpenAI that can create realistic video scenes from simple text instructions. As such, Sora is bound to raise a myriad of potential intellectual property issues as well as name and likeness and invasion of privacy issues depending on the extent to which it is exploited by the user.

OpenAI states that Sora can generate videos up to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adherence to the user’s prompts. Sora is able to generate complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background. The AI model can understand not only what the user has asked for in the prompt but also how those things exist in the physical world, and it has an understanding of language enabling it to accurately interpret prompts and generate compelling characters that express human emotions. Sora can also create multiple shots within a single generated video that accurately demonstrate and enhance characters and visual style. With all of the photos and information available on social media and the internet at Sora's disposal, the possibilities are endless. 

Most concerning is that, like ChatGPT and other AI applications, the more Sora is used to more it will learn, grow and advance to become better and smarter at production - so it seems inevitable that Sora will eventually have the ability to produce HD-quality and feature-length film productions.

For example, the user can write a sentence stating details such as "it was a dark and stormy night when through the foggy window of a castle we see a maniacal scientist flipping a switch to bring a robot to life" - and the more detailed the description the more detailed the video Sora can provide with photo-quality production. Initially this may appear innocuous enough enabling a parent to easily turn their child's playtime story into a video or allow a struggling screenwriter who might never otherwise get a film produced to use Sora to create a feature length film. However, as some commentators have pointed out, taking it a step further, a corporation might try to take an image of someone famous (or just anyone attractive they think might help sell their product), and then have Sora create a video commercial showing that person endorsing the product and promoting it. On the darker end, a co-worker could create a video of a fellow employee appearing to do all sorts of illicit activities and then anonymously bring it to the attention of the employer. Imagine the chaos that could be created in the political arena (as if there is not already enough confusion and misinformation in circulation). Or worse, imagine all of the carnal, erotic activities that could be generated by a user (or even a stalker) to make any person in their sights appear to be doing anything the user's imagination can conjure. 

AI has already disrupted copyright law norms for creators particularly in the music space, and has challenged established intellectual property concepts in the entertainment world and beyond. Sora would seem to be poised to expand those problems exponentially. Without some type of common sense regulations in place, whether from the government or the industry (or a combination thereof), Sora could be used by the most vile of individuals to create videos that could defile, mislead and scare people, or even instigate riots based on the appearance of something that is completely fabricated but entirely realistic in appearance. 

It might not be long before there is more clarity on the matter since lawsuits will inevitably make their way through the courts, and these cases may establish some parameters for the use of Sora. Like other current AI platforms, Sora is somewhat crude and imperfect, but by design AI improves and gets “smarter” the more it is used. Sora may still be in the early horse & buggy stage now, but it is quickly advancing to the Tesla level - at which point chaos is very likely to ensue. 

Wallace Collins is an entertainment lawyer and intellectual property attorney based in New York. He was a songwriter and recording artist for Epic Records before receiving his law degree from Fordham Law School. www.wallacecollins.com