Mumbai: Granting relief to singer-composer Arijit Singh, Bombay High Court said that AI tools generating content using a celebrity’s voice, image or other attributes without consent violate his or her “personality rights”.

Celebrities are particularly vulnerable to unauthorized generation of content through AI tools, HC said.

Hearing Singh’s petition, Justice R I Chagla, in his interim order on July 26, restrained eight online platforms from using his “personality rights”, and directed them to remove all such content and also voice conversion tools.

Singh had moved HC claiming that these platforms provide AI tools to synthesize artificial sound recordings by mimicking his voice, mannerisms and other attributes. Singh has consciously refrained from any kind of brand endorsement or gross commercialization of his personality traits for the past several years, his lawyer Hiren Kamod said.

HC agreed that Singh should be given interim relief. “What shocks the conscience of this court is the manner in which celebrities, particularly performers such as the present plaintiff, are vulnerable to being targeted by unauthorized generative AI content,” the judge said.

The freedom of speech and expression allows for critique and commentary but does not grant the licence to exploit a celebrity’s persona for commercial gain, Justice Chagla said. “Making AI tools available that enable the conversion of any voice into that of a celebrity without his/her permission constitutes a violation of the celebrity’s personality rights,” he added. Such tools facilitate “unauthorized appropriation and manipulation” of a celebrity’s voice, a key component of their personal identity, Justice Chagla said. Further, such use of AI technology also undermines celebrities’ ability to prevent “deceptive uses of their identity,” the HC said.

“Prima facie, I am of the view that the plaintiff ’s personality traits including his name, voice, photograph/ caricature, image, likeness, persona and other attributes of his personality are protectable elements of his personality rights,” Justice Chagla said.