Comment by Tahliah Debrett Barnett (FKA twigs)

We must enact regulation now to safeguard our authenticity and protect against misappropriation of our inalienable rights. Three decades ago, we did not realize that the internet would embed itself so deeply into the core of our everyday lives. Policies and controls to keep pace with the emergence of the technology were not put in place to protect artists, young people, and those that are vulnerable, and it ran away with us. AI is the biggest leap in technological advancement since the internet. You know the saying, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me? If we make the same mistake with the emergence of AI, it will be shame on us. What is not acceptable is when my art and my identity can simply be taken by a third party and exploited falsely for their own gain, without my consent, due to the absence of appropriate legislative control and restriction. History has shown us time again that in moments of great technological advancement, those in the arts have been the first to have their work exploited and, in many instances, fraudulently commoditized. Soon after, it follows that the general and more vulnerable public suffer the same types of image-and voice-related exploitation. By protecting artists with legislation at such a momentous time in history, we are protecting a 5-year-old child, in the future, from having their voice, likeness, and identity taken and used as a commodity without prior consent.