The "Blueprint” for Authenticity: How Official AI Protects Image and Likeness in the Digital Age (Dave Siegfried, CEO)

Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast

In this episode, Dave Siegfried discusses the company he heads, Official AI -- a company focused on helping its customers create and verify authentic AI content. Siegfried, a "recovering accountant" with a background in tech and media licensing, discusses his journey from co-founding Audiosocket, a music licensing platform, to addressing challenges in generative AI.

The conversation highlights the evolution of intellectual property protection in the digital age. Siegfried explains how Official AI empowers individuals and brands to create AI-generated images and videos with consent, credit, and compensation for the use of their name, image, likeness, and voice. He details Official AI's "vault technology," which creates a "blueprint" of a person's likeness from a small set of images, enabling authorized creation of synthetic media.

The discussion also delves into provenance technology and the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) open-source standard, which Official AI leverages to track content origin and changes, ensuring authenticity. Siegfried touches on the challenges of verifying content on social media platforms and the future role of blockchain technology in creating immutable records of consent. The episode concludes with insights into Official AI's business model, customer base (including athletes and historic estates), and future roadmap.

Key Takeaways:

• Generative AI presents significant challenges and opportunities for intellectual property rights, particularly concerning name, image, likeness, and voice.

• Official AI aims to proactively address these challenges by providing a platform for consent-based AI content creation.

• Provenance technology, including C2PA, is crucial for verifying the authenticity and authorized use of AI-generated content.

• The legal landscape surrounding AI and publicity rights is rapidly evolving, requiring adaptable technological solutions.

Things We Talk About in this Episode

• Official AI Website: Visit theofficial.ai to learn more about their platform and services.

• Contact Dave Siegfried: Dave can be reached at [email protected].

• Content Authenticity Initiative (C2PA): Explore the open-source standard for content provenance and authenticity at c2pa.org.

Episode Credits

Editing and Production: Grant Blackstock

Theme Music: Home Base (Instrumental Version) by TA2MI