Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey has trademarked his image and voice to protect them from unauthorised use by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms.

Clips including his famous catchphrase “alright, alright, alright” from the 1993 film, Dazed and Confused, have been registered to the United States Patent and Trademark Office database, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.

Lawyers for the Magic Mike star told the WSJ they had no current examples of McConaughey’s likeness being manipulated by AI, but hoped the trademarks could be used broadly against any unauthorised copies of him.

A secondary aim would be to “capture some of the value that is being created with this new technology”, Kevin Yorn - one of the lawyers representing McConaughey - told the AFP news agency.“My team and I want to know that when my voice or likeness is ever used, it’s because I approved and signed off on it”, McConaughey said via email to the newspaper.

“We want to create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world”.McConaughey is not a hardline opponent of generative AI.

He has a stake in ElevenLabs, a software company specialising in AI voice modelling “for several years now”, according to the 56-year-old.

The company has created an AI audio version of the ‘Interstellar’ actor, with his permission.

I felt the headline is a bit misleading. It seems he is just using the clips as examples of his work to copyright his likeness, which is more than fair. Laws around deepfakes are seriously lacking.

I just hope the court are able to differentiate between a model being able to reproduce someone’s likeness and someone actually doing it and distributing the material. The former is impossible to stop without gutting free local models because of how image to video works.

Look, if the minimum wage is half a dollar, I doubt the doctors are making 100k a year. I don’t consider us a great country, but it’s easier to immigrate here than Luxembourg which is my point. It’s not the best but it’s easily better than half the world, and the best places have stricter requirements that make it impossible for most. Mind you, even immigrating here was hard before trump, just easier than better places.

It just seems hollow to tell people to stay home and find somewhere better, when their choice are between here and Iran for example.

I also don’t think it’s fair, the current state of the world is a direct consequence of the colonial and imperialistic mindset. You still have to be realistic and honest about it.

Most do. I think maybe you should visit other countries. You are talking from a position of privilege.

https://www.democracywithoutborders.org/36317/autocracies-outnumber-democracies-for-the-first-time-in-20-years-v-dem/

I’ve been to countries where half the population was living in shacks with no running water and making 30$ a week. I can’t imagine telling those people that they have it better.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/minimum-wage-by-country

It’s true for the low-end jobs, not just top earners. There are Uber drivers that are making more then they were being a doctor in their birth country.

I misspoke when I said “most”. I’m just saying that with all its faults, there are many worst places to live in.

Certain countries are in the middle of civil wars, even genocide. Being gay is a death sentence in others while women rights in many basically don’t exist.

We also don’t have open borders, it’s not like people get a list with every country and all they have to do is pick.

It strikes me as first world problems and not understanding the actual living conditions in half the world or how immigration works to say “why would anyone come here”.

Most countries have terrible living condition and poverty wages, even for doctors and engineers. Most great places don’t let people from poor places come in easily.

We could have real regulations if most gamers weren’t busy being bootlicking fanboys. Stop defending billionaires and their money extracting machines, they actively hate you.

It’s a good thing if you are smart enough to understand that AI isn’t going away. Universal bought udio, the “legal” variant of the dataset will be used to train models, only they will be closed source, censored and come with a ToS that gives all the rights from the generated music to the record companies from the get go.

At least this gives open source a chance.

It’s beside the point. I’m simply saying that AI will improve in the next year. The cost to do so or all the others things that money could be spent on doesn’t matter when it’s clearly going to be spent on AI. I’m not in charge of monetary policies anywhere, I have no say in the matter. I’m just pushing back on the fantasies. I’m hoping the open source scene survives so we don’t end up in some ugly dystopia where all AI is controlled by a handful of companies.

The cost of the improvement doesn’t change the fact that it’s happening. I guess we could all play pretend instead if it makes you feel better about it. Don’t worry bro, the models are getting dumber!

They are improving, and probably faster then junior devs. The models we had had 2 years ago would struggle with a simple black jack app. I don’t think the ceiling has been hit.

It’s not accelerating the trend one bit by opening it to everyone. Music labels and Spotify don’t plan on putting a stop to AI, they want to own it. The artists lost decades ago and siding with copyright juggernauts doesn’t help anyone but the copyright juggernauts.

It hurts record companies. They want to own all AI generated music. It’s quite clear with what happened to udio. It’s monopolies against open source, not AI against artists.

Would it make sense to build a vaccine for them? I figure their numbers are relatively low and most of them are tracked one way or another.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has two cards to play that might pop the AI bubble. If she does so, Trump’s presidency will be thrown into crisis.

First, Dutch company ASML commands a global monopoly on the microchip-etching machines that use light to carve patterns on silicon. These machines are essential for Nvidia, the AI microchip giant that is now the world’s most valuable company. ASML is one of Europe’s most valuable companies, and European banks and private equity are also invested in AI. Withholding these silicon-etching machines would be difficult for Europe, and extremely painful for the Dutch economy. But it would be far more painful for Trump.

The US’s feverish investment in AI and the datacentres it relies on will hit a wall if European export controls slow or stop exports to the US – and to Taiwan, where Nvidia produces its most advanced chips. Via this lever, Europe has the means to decide whether and by how much the US economy expands or contracts.

Second, and much easier for Europe, is the enforcement of the EU’s long-neglected data rules against big US tech companies. Confidential corporate documents made public in US litigation show how vulnerable companies such as Google can be to the enforcement of basic data rules. Meanwhile, Meta has been unable to tell a US court what its internal systems do with your data, or who can access it, or for what purpose.

This data free-for-all lets big tech companies train their AI models on masses of everyone’s data, but it is illegal in Europe, where companies are required to carefully control and account for how they use personal data. All Brussels has to do is crack down on Ireland, which for years has been a wild west of lax data enforcement, and the repercussions will be felt far beyond.

I just think the big players aren’t touching personal blogs or social media anymore and only use specific vetted sources, or have other strategies in place to counter it. Anthropic is the one that told everyone how to do it, I can’t imagine them doing that if it could affect them.

That being said, sabotaging all future endeavors would likely just result in a soft monopoly for the current players, who are already in a position to cherry pick what they add. I wouldn’t be surprised if certain companies are already poisoning the well to stop their competitors tbh.

I hope people are starting to understand that this is what the pro copyright media campaign is actually about. They don’t want to stop AI, they want to own it.

Put a maximum net worth. Every dollar over it equals one punch to the kidneys.