AI voice clones face fresh legal threat after landmark Tokyo court ruling - IOL
Kenjiro Tsuda, known for his starring roles in mega-franchises including "Jujutsu Kaisen" has won the right to protect his voice from AI cloning.
A Tokyo court ruled Wednesday that the human voice is legally protected in Japan after a high-profile anime voice actor took TikTok to court over videos he says feature an artificial intelligence clone of his "lustrous" baritone.
The decision marks a partial victory for Kenjiro Tsuda, known for his starring roles in mega-franchises including "Jujutsu Kaisen" and "Yu-Gi-Oh!", although the court dismissed his request for removal of the videos.
"The unauthorised use of a performer's voice... can be considered an infringement on publicity rights," said judge Aya Takahashi.
AI imitation is a growing concern among performers worldwide, and the threat has roiled Japan's storied animation industry, whose voice actors are sometimes worshipped as much as their characters by fans.
The lawsuit is believed to be the country's first seeking to defend an individual's vocal identity against AI-generated copies.
According to Tsuda’s lawsuit, the account had posted at least 188 videos and amassed about 210,000 followers. His legal team estimated that the account could generate between ¥500,000 and ¥750,000 a month (about R55,000 to R83,000) based on its view counts. TikTok disputed that the voice was Tsuda’s, arguing that it was a generic male voice and that any similarity was subjective.
The case comes as Japan grapples with how existing laws should apply to AI-generated likenesses.
The Justice Ministry issued non-binding guidance in August saying a person’s voice can be protected under existing publicity rights, while Japanese voice actors have also been campaigning against the unauthorised use of AI to reproduce performers’ voices. Tsuda’s lawyers used deep-learning models to analyse the disputed recordings and compare them with his voice, highlighting the difficulties of proving vocal similarity in court.
