Martina McBride calls on Senate to take action against deepfakes
Country music legend Martina McBride testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee on deepfakes.
On May 21, country singer Martina McBride appeared before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law at a hearing to speak out against AI-generated deepfakes.
The “This One’s for the Girls” and “A Broken Wing” singer testified in support of the No Fakes Act, a bill that would federally protect an individual’s voice and likeness against unauthorized AI deepfakes and vocal clones.
“I think it’s important because as artists, we hopefully want to speak the truth,” McBride said. “We want to build a relationship with our fans in which they trust us — they believe what we say.”
Martina McBride says fan duped by deepfake of her funneled money to scammer: ‘That is so devastating to me’
McBride, appearing alongside RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier, told the subcommittee that when celebrity deepfakes are used to endorse a product, it can be harmful to the trust between fans and their audience.
“I just realized sitting here that I bought a product, a collagen supplement, off of Instagram the other day, because it had LeAnn Rimes and a couple of other people,” she said. “I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Oh my goodness. I don’t even know if that was really them.'”
“We had a situation, personally, where one of my fans believed they were talking to me, ended up selling their house and funneling the money to someone who they thought was me,” McBride continued. “That is so devastating to me to realize that somebody who trusts me could be duped like that.”
McBride added that someone who has been impacted by a deepfake could also become angry enough to someday seek retribution against these public figures.
“We’re on stages in front of thousands of people,” she said. “We’re in public places. So it’s a danger to the artist as well.”
The subcommittee — which includes Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. and Senator Chris Coons, D-Del — also saw testimony from witnesses including Consumer Reports Director of Technology Policy Justin Brookman, YouTube Head of Music Policy Suzana Carlos, and National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) Senior Legal Counsel Christen Price.
Audrey Gibbs is a music journalist at The Tennessean. You can reach her at agibbs@tennessean.com.
