Licensing Your Likeness to AI: What to Check Before You Sign
An AI likeness deal licenses your face or voice for set uses, a term and a fee. The laws, union terms and contract checks to settle before you sign.
By John Hyland, Founder, 1DS · Published · 5 min read
Licensing your likeness to AI means giving a company the right to create a digital replica of your face, body or voice and use it for set purposes, over a set term, for a fee. Before you sign, pin down what the replica can say and sell, how long the license runs, whether your recordings train other models and what happens to all of it when the deal ends.
A likeness license works like usage rights with no natural end date, since a company can keep generating new content of you long after the capture session. That's why the scope deserves more attention than the first fee. Licensing sits with the owned streams in our income streams guide, and an AI deal is the version where the rights you keep matter most.
What does licensing your likeness to AI cover?
Both the inputs and the outputs: the recordings and scans you hand over, and everything the company generates from them. The NO FAKES bill defines a digital replica as "a newly created, computer-generated, highly realistic electronic representation that is readily identifiable as the voice or visual likeness of an individual."
Offers tend to arrive from 4 directions:
- Ad tools. TikTok announced Symphony avatars in June 2024, with stock avatars built from "paid actors that are licensed for commercial use" and custom avatars "crafted to represent a creator or a brand spokesperson" (TikTok).
- Voice marketplaces. On ElevenLabs, people who share a Professional Voice Clone in its Voice Library earn rewards based on usage by paid users, per its payouts documentation.
- Brands that want a digital twin of you for ads, product demos or customer service.
- Studios and game publishers, where union contracts often set the rules.
Each offer asks for something different, so read every one as 3 questions: what they capture, what they can make and for how long.
What do the laws say about AI likeness?
A patchwork of state laws, 1 federal law aimed at intimate images and a broader federal bill that cleared committee in June 2026. Your contract still does most of the protecting.
- Tennessee's ELVIS Act (Public Chapter 588, effective July 1, 2024) says "an individual also has a property right in the use of that individual's voice," and makes a person liable for distributing technology whose primary purpose is producing someone's photograph, voice or likeness without authorization (Tennessee General Assembly).
- Illinois's Digital Voice and Likeness Protection Act, in force since August 2024, can void a contract term that lets a company use a digital replica of you in place of work you'd have done in person, when the term lacks a reasonably specific description of the uses and no lawyer or union negotiated it for you.
- The federal TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed in May 2025, criminalizes publishing nonconsensual intimate images, AI-made ones included. Since May 19, 2026, covered platforms have had to remove them within 48 hours of a valid request, and the FTC enforces those rules.
- The NO FAKES Act of 2026 (S. 4591) would create a federal right in your voice and visual likeness, with a notice-and-takedown process for unauthorized replicas. The Senate Judiciary Committee reported it in June 2026, and it would take effect 180 days after becoming law.
What should a likeness license include?
Every use spelled out, an end date, your approval over outputs, and limits on training, transfers and exclusivity. Use this table as a checklist when an offer lands.
| Term | What to ask for | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Uses | A reasonably specific description of each use: product, channel, format and language | SAG-AFTRA contracts and the NO FAKES bill both use this standard |
| Term | A fixed end date, with renewals by new agreement | The NO FAKES bill would cap a living person's license at 10 years |
| Approvals | Sign-off on every output before it goes live | A replica can say things you never said |
| Training | A ban on training general AI models with your recordings | SAG-AFTRA's Narrativ deal bars training a foundational model |
| Deletion | Deletion of the replica and source files when the deal ends | Narrativ has to delete both when a performer leaves |
| Exclusivity | Named categories and dates, priced as their own line | A broad clause can block your other brand deals |
| Off-limits uses | Politics, adult content, health claims and your sponsors' competitors | Your name stays attached to every output |
| Transfers | Written consent before any sublicense or sale of the replica | Keeps the replica with the company you vetted |
| Exit | A notice period you can live with | ElevenLabs lets voice owners choose from immediate removal up to 2 years |
| Pay | A fee per use or per period, a minimum guarantee and usage reports | You can only bill for uses you can see |
| Minors | Court approval and a short term | The NO FAKES bill would require both, with a 5-year cap |
SAG-AFTRA's AI FAQs say members must get "a reasonably specific description" of the intended use each time a replica is used, with consent that's "clear and conspicuous" and "separately signed or initialed." Its August 2024 agreement with Narrativ, covering digital voice replicas in audio ads, adds consent for each ad, a ban on training a foundational model and deletion when a performer leaves.
How should you price an AI likeness license?
Start from usage rights, then add for what's new: the replica keeps working after you stop. Channels, paid or organic use, length and territory set the base, the same way they do in our guide to pricing usage rights, and exclusivity is priced on top.
- Capture fee: paid for the session itself, whether or not the replica is used.
- License fee: per campaign, per period or per use, tied to the uses in the contract.
- Minimum guarantee: a floor, so a slow year still pays.
- Revenue share: a percentage of products sold in your voice or with your face.
- Training fee: a separate, larger number for any right to train models, if you grant it at all.
Published rates are scarce, so look at how existing programs structure pay. ElevenLabs pays voice owners based on usage by paid users, and its Voice Library docs say "Voice owners receive increased financial rewards for selecting a longer notice period" (2026). SAG-AFTRA's 2023 TV/Theatrical terms require "informed consent and compensation" for creating and using digital replicas (SAG-AFTRA).
What can go wrong with an AI likeness deal?
Your replica can outlive the deal, say things you'd never say and appear next to brands you'd never work with. Most of that is preventable in the contract, and the rest takes monitoring.
- Scope creep: a license written for 1 campaign ends up in years of ads.
- Training: your recordings feed a general model, and a version of your voice turns up in products you never approved.
- Conflicts: the replica promotes a competitor of a current sponsor, which can breach exclusivity in a deal you've already signed.
- Reputation: an output says something offensive, with your face on it.
- Union rules: SAG-AFTRA members need terms that match the union's consent rules before they sign.
- Fakes: unauthorized replicas made by people you never licensed at all.
Platform tools help with the fakes. YouTube's experimental likeness detection lets creators 18 or older who own or manage a channel enroll with a government-issued ID and a short selfie video, then review videos where their face appears to be AI-altered or AI-generated and request removal through the privacy complaint process. YouTube says it "will not remove all content" and weighs factors such as parody or satire (YouTube Help).
For impersonation accounts, our guide on what to do when someone impersonates you covers reporting on TikTok and Instagram.
Creator licensing, covering whitelisting, dark posts and content rights, is part of what we run for brands, and Legal & Business Affairs, covering contract negotiation and IP protection, is 1 of our 10 services. If an AI likeness offer is sitting in your inbox, apply for representation.
Questions creators ask
Can I license my face to AI companies?
Yes, through a written license that sets the uses, term, approvals and fee. Ad tools, voice marketplaces and brands all make these offers, so compare each on training rights, deletion and exit before you choose.
How much do AI companies pay for your likeness?
Pay depends on scope, term, exclusivity and how often the replica is used, and published rates are scarce. Voice marketplaces such as ElevenLabs pay based on use by paid customers, while brand deals tend to pay a campaign fee plus usage.
Is it legal to use my likeness in AI without permission?
It depends on the state and the use. Tennessee's ELVIS Act creates liability for unauthorized use of your voice or likeness, the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act covers intimate images, and the broader NO FAKES Act cleared a Senate committee in June 2026.
What is the NO FAKES Act?
A federal bill that would create a right in your voice and visual likeness, with notice-and-takedown for unauthorized digital replicas and a 10-year cap on licenses for living people. The 2026 version, S. 4591, was reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2026, so check its status on Congress.gov.
Can I get an AI video of me removed from YouTube?
You can file a privacy complaint, and enrolled creators can use YouTube's likeness detection to find videos where their face appears to be AI-altered or AI-generated. YouTube weighs factors such as parody or satire and says it won't remove all content.
Should SAG-AFTRA members sign AI likeness deals on their own?
Check with the union first. SAG-AFTRA's terms require a reasonably specific description of each use and separately signed consent, and the union has negotiated AI agreements such as its 2024 deal with Narrativ for digital voice replicas in audio ads. This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Talk to a qualified professional about your situation.
Written by
John Hyland
Founder, 1DS
Want a team negotiating your deals?
1DS Management represents more than 100 creators and athletes across brand partnerships, content strategy and monetization.