The Senate has introduced a bill that takes on tamping down deepfakes while also protecting creative content from use for AI model training. The Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act, to be known as the COPIED Act, seeks to enact safeguards to protect journalists, actors, songwriters and other artists “against AI-driven theft,” while establishing new federal transparency guidelines for marking, authenticating and detecting AI-generated content. Emphasizing accountability, the bill stipulates that those found in violation will be subject to legal action.

The bill “would require companies that develop AI tools to allow users to attach content provenance information to their content within two years,” writes TechCrunch, explaining that “content provenance information refers to machine-readable information that documents the origin of digital content, such as photos and news articles.”

According to the COPIED Act, it would be unlawful for AI companies to train using works that contain content provenance information without permission.

Advanced on a bipartisan basis, the bill was introduced by senators Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), member of the Commerce Committee, and Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico), member of the Senate AI Working Group.

The COPIED Act aims to put creators — including journalists, artists and musicians — “back in control of their content with a provenance and watermark process that I think is very much needed,” Cantwell said in a statement.

“The capacity of AI to produce stunningly accurate digital representations of performers poses a real and present threat to the economic and reputational well-being and self-determination of our members,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director and chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA, said in a statement included in The Hill, which reports that the union endorses the measure.

If passed, the COPIED Act would create a civil cause of action for content owners and state attorneys general to seek damages from AI companies that improperly use their material. “The bill would allow individuals to sue for violations and authorize the FTC and state attorneys general to enforce its requirements,” writes PC Magazine.

The proposal comes at a time when concerns about AI misuse is heating up. Axios reported earlier this week that “states are introducing 50 AI-related bills per week.”