Janhavi Tripathi and Harshita Gupta
The 21st century is a century of innovation and technology. The world is witnessing an industrial revolution wherein, artificial intelligence (hereinafter ‘AI’) is blurring the line between human creation and artificial creation. The impact of AI has left no industry unaffected. In the realm of music, the emergence of Voice Cloning Technology has brought forth novel challenges. Pertinent issues concerning the protection of intellectual property rights have cropped up due to the advent of voice cloning technology. This paper seeks to explore these particular challenges with a focus on the current intellectual property rights regime. The authors seek to establish that the existing framework is insufficient to address the concerns raised by voice cloning technology. Especially, given the fact that ‘voice’ is not a subject of the intellectual rights regime. This gap, as per the authors, renders singers, voice artists, and other public personalities without remedy in case their voice is misused or used without consent by a person or an organization. In this light, the authors turn to explore performers’ rights and publicity rights to find possible solutions. Furthermore, developments in other jurisdictions have been discussed to find the best possible policy to meet the challenges presented by voice cloning technology. Finally, the authors conclude by suggesting the codification of personality rights and amendments in the current legal framework as a possible solution to the menace of voice cloning technology.
