this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
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193
Matthew McConaughey trademarks iconic phrase to stop AI misuse (www.bbc.co.uk)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone to c/technology@lemmy.world
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The Oscar-winning actor has trademarked several phrases, including "Alright, alright, alright" from the cult classic film, Dazed and Confused.

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[–] Grimy@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey has trademarked his image and voice to protect them from unauthorised use by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms.

Clips including his famous catchphrase "alright, alright, alright" from the 1993 film, Dazed and Confused, have been registered to the United States Patent and Trademark Office database, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.

Lawyers for the Magic Mike star told the WSJ they had no current examples of McConaughey's likeness being manipulated by AI, but hoped the trademarks could be used broadly against any unauthorised copies of him.

A secondary aim would be to "capture some of the value that is being created with this new technology", Kevin Yorn - one of the lawyers representing McConaughey - told the AFP news agency."My team and I want to know that when my voice or likeness is ever used, it's because I approved and signed off on it", McConaughey said via email to the newspaper.

"We want to create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world".McConaughey is not a hardline opponent of generative AI.

He has a stake in ElevenLabs, a software company specialising in AI voice modelling "for several years now", according to the 56-year-old.

The company has created an AI audio version of the 'Interstellar' actor, with his permission.

I felt the headline is a bit misleading. It seems he is just using the clips as examples of his work to copyright his likeness, which is more than fair. Laws around deepfakes are seriously lacking.

I just hope the court are able to differentiate between a model being able to reproduce someone's likeness and someone actually doing it and distributing the material. The former is impossible to stop without gutting free local models because of how image to video works.