{"id":408971,"date":"2026-01-15T15:08:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/408971\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T15:08:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:08:27","slug":"matthew-mcconaughey-fights-unauthorized-ai-likenesses-by-trademarking-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/408971\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew McConaughey fights unauthorized AI likenesses by trademarking himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew McConaughey filed trademark applications to prevent his likeness from being used by AI companies without permission, and the US Patent and Trademark Office has approved eight so far. According to the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, the trademarks were for video and audio clips featuring the actor staring, smiling and talking. One was for a video of him standing on a porch, while another was for an audio recording of him saying \u201calright, alright, alright,\u201d his signature catchphrase from the movie Dazed and Confused.<\/p>\n

Under the law, it\u2019s already prohibited<\/a> for companies to steal someone\u2019s likeness to sell products. However, McConaughey is taking a proactive approach due to the nebulous rules around the use of someone\u2019s likeness for artificial intelligence and what\u2019s considered commercial use involving the technology. His lawyer, Kevin Yorn, admits that they don\u2019t know how the court would decide if an offender challenges the trademarks. But they\u2019re hoping that the threat of a lawsuit would deter companies from using McConaughey\u2019s likeness for AI in the first place. Actors have been trying to protect themselves from AI since the technology blew up, and it was one of the sticking points in the negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood studios when the labor union went on a strike in 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n

McConaughey isn\u2019t anti-AI by any means: He is an investor in ElevenLabs<\/a> and has partnered with the AI startup to create a Spanish version of his newsletter. He said in a statement sent to The Journal that he just wants to make sure that if his voice or likeness is ever used, it\u2019s because he approved and signed off on it. \u201cWe want to create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew McConaughey filed trademark applications to prevent his likeness from being used by AI companies without permission, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,152588,10633,74,132121,196552,17012],"class_list":["post-408971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-likeness","tag-matthew-mcconaughey","tag-technology","tag-trademarks","tag-us-patent-and-trademark-office","tag-wall-street-journal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}