A convincing audio clip using your voice appears online, even though you never recorded the words it contains. As the recording spreads, you may wonder how deepfake laws in Tennessee address who created it and whether you have legal protection. Tennessee regulates certain deepfake uses, but creating or sharing AI-generated material is not automatically unlawful.
A deepfake can include audio, imagery, or video generated or manipulated with artificial intelligence to realistically portray something that never occurred. Legal consequences depend on which Tennessee law applies and how the material was created, used, or distributed.
Content, consent, distribution, and the person’s knowledge or intent can determine which Tennessee law applies. For intimate deepfakes involving sexual content, HSGLaW Group’s sexual assault attorneys in Nashville can review the material, how it was distributed, and which Tennessee protections may apply.
Key Takeaways
- Tennessee regulates deepfakes through targeted laws covering intimate depictions, identity rights, and certain political advertisements.
- Unauthorized intimate deepfakes can create civil or criminal consequences when Tennessee’s statutory requirements are satisfied.
- Tennessee’s ELVIS Act protects identifiable voices and likenesses from certain unauthorized uses, including some AI-generated simulations.
- Covered political advertisements using qualifying deepfakes must include disclaimers required by Tennessee law.
Which Deepfakes Can Trigger Liability in Tennessee?
Tennessee applies different rules depending on whether synthetic material involves intimate content, identity rights, or regulated political advertising.
When Does Synthetic Content Qualify as a Deepfake?
Tennessee defines a deepfake as AI-generated or manipulated video, imagery, or audio that realistically portrays something that never occurred. The definition reaches beyond familiar face-swapped photographs and can include synthetic voices or altered video. Meeting that definition alone does not establish unlawful conduct.
Why Does the Content Change Which Tennessee Law Applies?
Tennessee does not use one universal prohibition for every deepfake. Intimate depictions involve consent and disclosure rules, while voice claims involve separate personal-rights protections. Political advertisements containing candidate deepfakes fall under a different statutory framework.
When Can Intimate Deepfakes Create Legal Liability?
Tennessee provides separate civil and criminal rules for certain unauthorized disclosures involving intimate digital depictions.
When Can Disclosure Support an Intimate Deepfake Claim?
Tennessee allows a civil claim when someone intentionally discloses a qualifying intimate digital depiction without consent. The defendant must know, or recklessly disregard, that the depicted person did not consent to disclosure. The Preventing Deepfake Images Act also states that consent to create does not establish consent to later disclosure.
Valid disclosure consent must appear in an agreement containing specific protections for the depicted person:
- Plain language explaining the agreement clearly
- Knowing and voluntary consent from the person depicted
- A signature showing agreement to disclosure
- A general description identifying the intimate depiction covered by the consent
A plaintiff may seek the defendant’s monetary gain and reasonable litigation costs. The statute also allows actual damages or $150,000 in liquidated damages, along with punitive damages and qualifying equitable relief.
When Can Intimate Deepfakes Lead to Criminal Charges?
Tennessee separately criminalizes certain disclosures, threatened disclosures, and solicitations involving intimate digital depictions. The offense requires specified harmful intent or knowledge or reckless disregard that disclosure will cause physical, emotional, reputational, or economic harm. A qualifying violation is generally a Class E felony and can become a Class C felony in specified circumstances involving governmental proceedings or facilitating violence.
How Does Tennessee Protect Voices and Likenesses From AI?
Tennessee’s ELVIS Act expanded existing personal-rights protections to address certain unauthorized uses of recognizable voices and likenesses.
When Can a Simulated Voice or Likeness Create Liability?
The ELVIS Act protects a person’s name, photograph, voice, and likeness from specified unauthorized uses. A protected voice includes sound readily identifiable and attributable to an individual, including a simulation of that voice. The law provides civil remedies for qualifying unauthorized public uses involving a person’s voice or likeness.
When Can Protected Uses Limit an ELVIS Act Claim?
The ELVIS Act treats certain First Amendment-protected uses as fair uses. These include news, public affairs, comment, criticism, scholarship, satire, and parody. Calling synthetic material parody or commentary does not automatically establish the exemption. The statutory protection depends on whether the particular use receives First Amendment protection. An unauthorized imitation therefore does not automatically create liability under the ELVIS Act.
Why Are Synthetic Voices Especially Relevant in Nashville?
Tennessee enacted the ELVIS Act partly in response to concerns about artificial intelligence in the state’s music industry, making its voice protections especially relevant to Nashville performers.
Why Does Voice Cloning Matter to Nashville’s Music Industry?
The ELVIS Act expressly protects identifiable voices, including qualifying simulated voices. For Nashville singers and performers, an AI-generated recording can raise authorization questions even when the performer never recorded the distributed words or performance.
When Can a Synthetic Recording Raise a Voice Claim?
A Nashville singer discovers an AI-generated recording that convincingly imitates her voice performing words she never recorded. Someone posts the track publicly without her authorization. Whether she has an ELVIS Act claim depends on whether the voice is identifiable, the use was authorized, and a statutory exemption applies.
How Does Tennessee Regulate Deepfakes in Political Ads?
Tennessee requires disclosures for certain political advertisements containing deepfake material that depicts or impersonates a candidate.
When Must a Political Deepfake Include a Disclaimer?
The Transparency for Deepfakes in Political Advertising Act took effect July 1, 2026. Covered political advertisements must include a disclaimer when deepfake material depicts or impersonates a candidate doing something that did not occur. Violating the disclaimer requirement is a Class C misdemeanor. The depicted candidate may also seek damages and equitable relief.
Does Tennessee’s Political Rule Cover Every Deepfake?
No. Tennessee’s political-advertising rule does not apply to every altered image or synthetic political post. For a non-incumbent candidate, the disclaimer provisions apply within 120 days before voting begins in that election. The law also limits liability for certain broadcasters and programming services paid to carry deepfake material. That protection applies when the entity was not responsible for creating the deepfake.
Call a Sexual Assault Attorney in Nashville
Tennessee does not treat every deepfake dispute the same way. Content, authorization, distribution, and purpose can determine which legal protections or restrictions apply.
HSGLaW Group maintains a Nashville office and lists general litigation as a practice area. Our attorneys can review synthetic material, its distribution, and the Tennessee laws that may apply. Contact us today or call 833-4HSGLAW to discuss the circumstances and available legal options.
