In the wake of rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, Bollywood actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan have filed a significant legal case against Google’s YouTube, seeking to protect their voices and personas from misuse by AI-generated content. The couple, known for their iconic status in Indian cinema, have raised concerns that the platform’s current policies allow for the unauthorized creation of AI videos that infringe on their intellectual property rights and could mislead the public. This lawsuit is part of a broader legal challenge in India, where the absence of explicit personality rights protections has led to a growing number of celebrities asserting their rights in court.
The Bachchans’ case builds on a trend of Bollywood stars seeking legal recourse against AI-generated content, which they argue could spread misinformation and harm their public image. Their legal filings, reviewed by Reuters, highlight the risk that YouTube’s current content and third-party training policies might enable users to share videos for the purpose of training rival AI models. This could lead to a wider proliferation of deepfake content online, raising serious ethical and legal concerns. The couple has requested court orders to remove and prohibit the creation of such AI videos, as well as safeguards to prevent the training of other AI models using content uploaded to YouTube.
This case represents one of the most prominent examples of the intersection between personality rights and AI in India, where legal frameworks have not yet fully addressed the unique challenges posed by artificial intelligence. The Bachchans have joined a small but growing number of Indian celebrities who have begun asserting their rights in the face of the potential for deepfake technology to be used for malicious purposes. The outcome of this case could set a significant precedent for how AI-generated content is regulated and protected in the entertainment industry, both in India and globally.