Bollywood stars Bachchan, Rai drag Google into fight over 'personality rights'

In India, Bollywood stars are asking judges to protect their voice and persona in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).

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One famous couple's biggest target is Google's video arm YouTube.

Actor Abhishek Bachchan and his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, known for her Cannes Film Festival red-carpet appearances, have asked a judge to remove and prohibit creation of AI videos infringing their intellectual property rights.

But in a more far-reaching request, they want Google ordered to have safeguards to ensure such YouTube videos uploaded anyway do not train other AI platforms, legal papers reviewed by Reuters show.

A handful of Bollywood celebrities have begun asserting their “personality rights” in Indian courts over the last few years, as the country has no explicit protection for those, like in many American states.

But the Bachchans’ lawsuits are the most high-profile to date about the interplay of personality rights and the risk that misleading or deepfake YouTube videos could train other AI models.

The actors argue that YouTube’s content and third-party training policy is concerning as it lets users consent to sharing a video they created to train rival AI models, risking further proliferation of misleading content online, according to near-identical filings from Abhishek, 49, and Aishwarya, 51, dated Sept 6, which are not public.

Representatives for the Bachchans and Google spokespersons did not respond to Reuters’ queries. The Delhi High Court in September asked Google’s lawyer in court to submit written responses before the next hearing on Jan 15.