Claims extracted
17
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
12%
2 of 17 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
66/100
The Guardian's corrections and
hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
2
Technology
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
A court in Japan has ruled that the human voice has legal protection after a landmark case involving a well known actor and a TikTok account whose AI-generated videos, he claimed, had cloned his “lustrous” baritone voice.
asserted
he → rule → voice
Tokyo district court said on Wednesday that voices enjoy the same protection as publicity rights, at the end of a closely watched legal action brought against TikTok by Kenjiro Tsuda – best known for voicing the character Kento Nanami in the anime Jujutsu Kaisen.
asserted
voices → say → anime
But the court dismissed Tsuda’s request that the operator of TikTok remove the videos, noting that the user had deleted them soon after the suit was filed last November.
asserted
suit → dismiss → them
“The unauthorised use of a performer’s voice … can be considered an infringement on publicity rights,” said the presiding judge, Aya Takahashi.
asserted
judge → consider → rights
The lawsuit is believed to be the first in Japan seeking to defend an individual’s vocal identity against AI-generated copies.
asserted
lawsuit → believe → copies
Japan’s voice actors, many of whom achieve star status through their “appearances” in anime, are increasingly worried that AI mimicry is threatening their livelihoods and the industry as a whole.
asserted
mimicry → achieve → whole
An actor’s voice “is the result of years of rigorous training and apprenticeship”, Yuko Sasaki, executive director of the Japan Actors Union, said ahead of the ruling.
asserted
Sasaki → say → ruling
Tsuda, 55, claimed that the 188 TikTok videos uploaded on an anonymous account between July 2024 and September last year had been narrated by a “deep” and “lustrous” voice that could only be his.
uncertain
that → claim → voice
In response, the platform argued that the videos contained a “generic male voice” and that any perceived similarities to Tsuda’s voice were highly subjective.
asserted
similarities → argue → voice
The verdict is the first in which a Japanese court declared that the human voice is protected under publicity rights, a reference to the ability to control and profit from aspects of an individual’s identity, in Tsuda’s case his distinctive voice.
asserted
voice → declare → case
The protection applies “if the purpose of using the voice is exclusively to take advantage of its commercial appeal”, Takahashi said, describing a voice to be “as symbolic of one’s personality as portraits are”.
asserted
portraits → apply → personality
The TikTok account, whose picture resembled Tsuda’s Jujutsu Kaisen character, combined images and AI-generated speech about urban legends, the occult and conspiracy theories.
asserted
picture → resemble → legends
At one point, the account had more than 200,000 subscribers and, according to the legal complaint, the clips would have earned its owner between ¥500,000 (£2,395) and ¥75,000 in monthly revenue, the Kyodo news agency said.
uncertain
agency → have → revenue
Describing the content as “sordid”, Tsuda’s legal team claimed the account had only attracted attention because it had cloned the “attractive voice of a popular actor”.
asserted
it → describe → actor
TikTok said in a statement that it would “respect the court’s judgment while considering what steps to take after scrutinising [the ruling’s] details”.
asserted
it → say → details
“We will continue to sincerely work on the balance between technology development and rights protection,” it added.
asserted
it → continue → development
In 2024, actors in Japan launched a campaign called “No More” to oppose the unauthorised use of their faces and voices in AI-generated content.
asserted
actors → launch → content
The Aporia
