Japan’s Justice Ministry said Friday that it would launch a study panel to examine civil liability for the unauthorized use of people’s likenesses and voices, as concerns grow over misuse driven by generative artificial intelligence.
The panel, set to meet five times between April and July, will review how existing tort law should be interpreted and applied in cases involving AI-generated content, including deepfake videos, synthetic voices and explicit images created without consent. It is scheduled to hold its first meeting on April 24.
Speaking at a briefing Thursday, Kazuyuki Iga, an official at the Justice Ministry’s Civil Affairs bureau, told reporters that the group was set up in response to a surge in such cases, as advances in AI have made it increasingly easy to replicate a person’s appearance or voice.
