Digital Replicas and AB 2602: What Voice Actors and AI Labs Need to Sign Now

The era of 'unauthorized' AI clones is over in CA. AB 2602 changes every talent contract in 2025. 🎙️

The End of the Wild West

For years, voice actors feared that signing a standard contract meant signing away their digital soul. AB 2602 puts an end to ambiguous clauses. It explicitly regulates "digital replicas" – computer-generated highly realistic electronic representations of a person's voice or likeness.

New Contract Requirements

Under AB 2602, a contract for the creation of a digital replica is unenforceable unless:

1. Specific Description: The contract must clearly describe the intended use of the digital replica. Vague "all media, throughout the universe" clauses won't cut it for AI cloning.
2. Legal Representation: The talent must be represented by legal counsel or a labor union during the negotiation.

For AI Labs

If you are building a voice cloning tool or an avatar generator, you need to audit your data acquisition contracts. Did you get explicit permission to create a generative model from the voice data? If your contracts are old, they likely don't cover this, and you are at risk of litigation.

For Talent

Conclusion

AB 2602 restores agency to performers. For the AI industry, it means that high-quality, ethically sourced data is now the only way forward.