TL;DR: Is AI voice cloning legal? The technology itself is legal in the United States and most other countries. What gets people sued, fined, or prosecuted is whose voice you clone and what you do with it. Cloning your own voice is generally fine. Cloning someone else's voice for ads, products, songs, or content that people will think is real usually requires that person's written consent, and using a cloned voice to deceive (scam calls, fake endorsements, election robocalls) can be illegal under fraud, robocall, and impersonation rules even if you never sell anything.
Voice cloning went from a lab demo to a feature in dozens of consumer apps in about three years. A 30-second sample is now enough to produce a convincing copy of almost anyone. That has made voice one of the fastest-moving areas of personal rights law, and the rules are not the same in every state.
This guide covers what the law says today: the right of publicity, the new state voice laws (Tennessee, California, New York, Illinois, Washington), the federal rules on robocalls and impersonation, the NO FAKES Act, and the EU's labeling rules. It ends with a practical consent checklist you can use before cloning anyone's voice.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Voice and likeness rules vary by state and country, so check the law where you and the person you are cloning live before you publish.
Key Takeaways
- The tool is legal; the use may not be. No U.S. law bans voice cloning software outright. Liability comes from using a recognizable voice without permission or using any cloned voice to deceive.
- Your own voice is yours. Cloning yourself for narration, podcasts, or translation is generally fine, but read the tool's terms on who can reuse your voice model.
- Other people's voices need consent. Most states protect a person's identity (often including voice) against commercial use without permission, and several now name AI voice replicas explicitly.
- Dead celebrities are not free to use. California, New York, and Tennessee protect deceased performers' voices, and their estates enforce those rights.
- Deception is its own problem. AI-voice robocalls need prior consent under federal law, and cloned-voice scams are fraud regardless of any publicity law.
- Get it in writing. A specific, signed consent that says how the voice will be used, for how long, and for what pay is the single best protection.
Is AI voice cloning legal? The short answer by situation
The legal risk depends almost entirely on the scenario. This table is the quick version; the sections below explain each row.
| Situation | Generally legal? | Main legal risk |
|---|---|---|
| Cloning your own voice for your content | Yes | Tool terms that let the vendor reuse your voice model |
| Cloning someone with their written consent for an agreed use | Yes | Using it beyond what the consent covers |
| Cloning a celebrity or public figure for an ad, product, or song | No, not without a license | Right of publicity, false endorsement, state AI voice laws |
| Cloning a deceased performer | Usually not without the estate's consent | Post-mortem publicity rights (CA, NY, TN and others) |
| Parody, commentary, or news clearly labeled as AI | Often protected | Must not mislead people into thinking it is real |
| AI voice in robocalls or marketing calls | Only with prior express consent | TCPA fines and lawsuits |
| Cloning a voice to impersonate or defraud | No | Wire fraud, identity theft, state criminal laws |
Cloning your own voice
If you record your own voice and use an AI tool to generate new speech from it, you are on solid ground. You own the right to commercialize your identity, and nobody else's rights are involved.
The part people miss is the tool's terms of service. Some voice platforms take a broad license to the recordings you upload and the voice model they build, which can let the vendor train on your voice or keep it after you cancel. Before you upload hours of audio, check three things in the terms:
- Who owns the voice model created from your recordings.
- Whether the vendor can use your voice to train other models or offer it to other users.
- Whether you can delete the model and your source audio, and what happens when you cancel.
If you are a professional voice actor, also check your existing contracts. A past agency or studio agreement may already restrict how you can license your voice, including synthetic versions of it.
Cloning someone else's voice: the right of publicity
The main body of law that protects voices in the U.S. is the right of publicity: a person's right to control commercial use of their identity. It is state law, so it varies, but most states recognize it in some form, either by statute or through court decisions.
Two classic cases show that voice has been protected long before AI:
- Midler v. Ford Motor Co. (9th Cir. 1988). Ford's ad agency hired a backup singer to imitate Bette Midler after she declined to appear in a commercial. The court held that deliberately imitating a well-known singer's distinctive voice to sell a product is an appropriation of her identity.
- Waits v. Frito-Lay (9th Cir. 1992). A sound-alike imitating Tom Waits's gravelly voice in a Doritos radio ad led to a jury verdict for Waits of about $2.5 million, upheld on appeal, including a false endorsement claim under the Lanham Act.
Neither case involved AI, which is exactly the point. If hiring a human impersonator to copy a famous voice for an ad was unlawful in 1988, an AI clone used the same way is at least as risky today.
The key questions a court will ask are whether the voice is identifiable as a particular person, and whether it is used for a commercial purpose (advertising, merchandise, a product feature, a paid service) without consent.
State laws that name AI voice clones
Several states have updated their publicity laws to address synthetic voices directly. As of October 2026, the most important are:
| State | Law | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Tennessee | ELVIS Act (effective July 1, 2024) | Adds voice, including a simulation of a voice, as a protected property right. Using it without authorization is a civil violation and a Class A misdemeanor. It also reaches anyone who distributes a tool whose primary purpose is producing a specific person's voice without authorization. |
| California | Civil Code 3344 plus AB 2602 and AB 1836 (effective Jan 1, 2025) | Section 3344 has long covered voice. AB 2602 makes contract clauses allowing a digital replica of a performer unenforceable unless the uses are specifically described and the performer had a lawyer or union representation. AB 1836 bars digital replicas of deceased personalities in audiovisual works or sound recordings without the estate's consent, with damages of at least $10,000. |
| New York | Civil Rights Law 50 and 51, digital replica laws signed Dec 11, 2025 | Protects living people against commercial use of their voice. The 2025 amendments bar digital replicas of deceased performers in expressive audiovisual works without consent, and a separate law requires disclosure of AI "synthetic performers" in ads (effective June 9, 2026). |
| Illinois | Right of Publicity Act amendments (effective Jan 1, 2025) | Adds "digital replica" definitions and liability for unauthorized digital replicas, including of voice. |
| Washington | SSB 5886 (effective June 11, 2026) | Extends personality rights to "forged digital likenesses," including audio of a person's voice that is likely to deceive a reasonable person. |
Other states rely on older publicity and privacy laws, which courts are already applying to AI. In Lehrman and Sage v. Lovo (S.D.N.Y. 2025), two voice actors alleged an AI company cloned their voices from recordings they had been told were for internal research. In July 2025 the court let their New York right of publicity, breach of contract, and consumer protection claims proceed, while dismissing most federal copyright and trademark claims. The takeaway: copyright rarely protects a voice as such, but publicity and contract law often do.
If you need to see how courts in a specific state have treated voice or likeness claims, AI case law search pulls the relevant decisions with links back to the full opinions.
Deceased celebrities and historical figures
A common assumption is that once someone has died, their voice is fair game. In many places it is not.
- California protects a deceased personality's identity for 70 years after death, and AB 1836 now specifically covers AI digital replicas in films, shows, and recordings.
- New York protects deceased performers who died domiciled in New York (on or after May 29, 2021) for 40 years, and its 2025 amendment covers digital replicas in expressive audiovisual works.
- Tennessee, home of the original Elvis estate litigation, protects these rights for at least 10 years after death and longer while the estate keeps using them commercially.
Uses for news, commentary, criticism, scholarship, satire, or parody generally get more room, and so do clearly fictional or documentary works in some states. But a cloned voice of a famous singer "performing" a new song, or narrating an ad, is the kind of use estates actively pursue.
When deception is the problem: scams, robocalls, and impersonation
Even with consent, or for a voice nobody would recognize, a cloned voice can be illegal if it is used to mislead.
Robocalls. On February 8, 2024, the FCC unanimously ruled that AI-generated voices are "artificial" voices under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. That means calls using a cloned or synthetic voice need the recipient's prior express consent (prior express written consent for telemarketing), just like prerecorded calls. The ruling followed AI robocalls imitating President Biden's voice before the 2024 New Hampshire primary. TCPA violations carry statutory damages of $500 to $1,500 per call.
FTC impersonation and deception. The FTC's Impersonation Rule (in force since April 1, 2024) makes it illegal to impersonate government agencies and businesses. A proposal to extend it to impersonating individuals, and to those who knowingly provide the means to do it, was still pending as of October 2026. Separately, the FTC can already pursue deceptive practices under Section 5 of the FTC Act, including fake endorsements built with cloned voices. If you are using AI voices in sponsored content, the disclosure rules in our guide to FTC disclosure rules for influencers apply too.
Fraud. Using a cloned voice of a family member, CEO, or bank officer to get money or information is fraud, full stop. Wire fraud, identity theft, and state computer crime laws apply regardless of whether any AI-specific law exists. Pennsylvania and several other states have also added criminal provisions targeting AI-generated impersonation.
Voice clones are one piece of the wider deepfake picture; for video and image rules, see our overview of deepfake laws.
Federal law: the NO FAKES Act
There is still no single federal law that gives everyone a right over their voice. The NO FAKES Act (S. 4591 in the 119th Congress) would create one: a federal right to authorize or refuse digital replicas of your voice and visual likeness, a notice-and-takedown system for platforms, and exceptions for news, commentary, and parody.
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the bill by unanimous voice vote on June 18, 2026, and it was placed on the Senate calendar on June 24, 2026. As of October 2026, neither chamber has passed it, so state law still does the heavy lifting.
The federal TAKE IT DOWN Act (signed May 19, 2025) targets nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI forgeries. It is not a general voice cloning law.
Outside the U.S.: the EU AI Act
If your audience includes people in the European Union, the EU AI Act's transparency rules (Article 50) have applied since August 2, 2026. Anyone deploying an AI system to create audio, image, or video "deepfakes" must disclose that the content is artificially generated or manipulated, with lighter requirements for clearly artistic, satirical, or fictional works. Providers of voice generation tools also have to mark AI output in a machine-readable way, with a grace period to December 2, 2026 for systems already on the market.
EU countries also protect voice through personality and data protection law. Under the GDPR, a voice recording that identifies someone is personal data, and a voice model built from it may be biometric data, which needs a valid legal basis (usually explicit consent).
Unions and performer contracts
If you work with professional performers, union agreements add another layer. SAG-AFTRA's 2023 TV/theatrical contract and later agreements, including its video game contract, require informed consent and compensation for digital replicas, with a clear description of how the replica will be used. Even for non-union work, those terms have become the industry benchmark, and California's AB 2602 turns several of them into law.
Voice cloning consent checklist
Before you clone anyone's voice other than your own, get a written agreement that covers:
- Identity and authority. The person's full name, and if they are a minor or deceased, the parent, guardian, or estate representative signing for them.
- Specific uses. Exactly what the cloned voice will be used for (for example, "English narration of product tutorial videos"), not "any purpose."
- Channels and territory. Where it will appear (YouTube, ads, an app, phone systems) and in which countries.
- Duration. A start and end date, and what happens to the voice model when it ends.
- Payment. A flat fee, per-use fee, or royalty, and whether new uses trigger new payments.
- Approval rights. Whether the person can review scripts or veto certain content (politics, adult content, competing brands).
- Disclosure. How the AI-generated nature will be labeled to the audience.
- Data handling. Where the source recordings and model are stored, who can access them, and deletion on request or at the end of the term.
- Revocation. Whether and how the person can withdraw consent, and what happens to content already published.
- Representation. For performers in California, confirmation that they had a lawyer or union representing them, since AB 2602 can void the clause otherwise.
A short, specific agreement beats a long, vague one. Courts and new statutes like AB 2602 are skeptical of blanket "all media, in perpetuity" clauses for digital replicas.
How LegesGPT helps
If you are building with voice tools, LegesGPT can draft a voice-use consent and licensing agreement tailored to your use case with AI contract drafting, using the checklist above as a starting point. You can then ask the legal AI chatbot how the right of publicity works in a specific state, or whether a planned use counts as commercial, and get answers with citations to the actual statutes and cases so you can verify them. For the related question of who owns what an AI tool produces, read who owns AI-generated content.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AI voice cloning legal?
The technology is legal in the United States and most countries. Whether a specific use is legal depends on whose voice it is and how you use it. Cloning your own voice is generally fine, cloning someone else's voice for commercial use usually needs their written consent, and using any cloned voice to deceive people can violate fraud, robocall, and impersonation laws.
Can you clone someone's voice legally?
Yes, if you have their informed, written consent for the specific use. Without consent, using an identifiable person's voice in ads, products, songs, or paid services can violate their right of publicity, and states such as Tennessee, California, New York, Illinois, and Washington now name AI voice replicas in their laws.
Is it illegal to clone a celebrity's voice?
Using a celebrity's cloned voice for commercial purposes without a license is a clear legal risk. Courts held sound-alike ads unlawful long before AI, in Midler v. Ford and Waits v. Frito-Lay, and Tennessee's ELVIS Act makes unauthorized voice replicas a civil violation and a misdemeanor. Clearly labeled parody or commentary has more protection.
Can I use AI to clone the voice of someone who has died?
Often not without permission from their estate. California protects deceased personalities for 70 years and its AB 1836 covers AI digital replicas in audiovisual works and recordings, New York protects deceased performers' voices against digital replicas, and Tennessee protects them for at least 10 years after death.
Is there a federal law against AI voice cloning?
Not a general one yet. The NO FAKES Act, which would create a federal right over digital replicas of your voice and likeness, cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2026 but has not passed either chamber. Federal rules still apply in specific areas, such as the FCC ruling that AI-voice robocalls need prior consent.
Are AI voice robocalls legal?
Only with the recipient's prior express consent, and prior express written consent for telemarketing. In February 2024 the FCC ruled that AI-generated voices count as artificial voices under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, so the same consent rules and per-call damages apply.
Do I need to disclose that a voice is AI-generated?
Often yes. The EU AI Act requires deepfake audio to be labeled as AI-generated since August 2026, New York requires disclosure of AI synthetic performers in ads, and FTC rules on deceptive endorsements apply when a cloned voice could mislead consumers. Labeling is also good practice even where it is not required.
What should a voice cloning consent agreement include?
It should name the person, list the specific uses, channels, territory, and duration, set the payment, give any approval or veto rights, explain how the AI voice will be disclosed, cover storage and deletion of recordings and the voice model, and say how consent can be revoked. Specific terms hold up better than blanket all-media clauses.
