PERSONA FOR SALE: AI DIGITAL REPLICAS AND THE COMMERCIAL APPROPRIATION OF IDENTITY IN INDIA

Abstract

Generative AI has made it possible to manufacture a person’s face, voice and manner, and to attach that replica to any product without the person ever being involved. The trust an audience places in a familiar face can now be copied at almost no cost and spent on someone else’s product. Indian law protects parts of that asset through personality rights, trademark and passing off, consumer protection, data protection and the intermediary rules. This Article argues that these regimes remain fragmented because each depends on a condition that AI-generated replicas can avoid—consumer confusion, a real endorser, a non-public dataset, or a platform with actual knowledge. Drawing on the United States and the European Union, it proposes a statutory framework for commercial digital replicas that defines what is protected, requires consent and regulates licensing, allocates responsibility between creators, advertisers, AI developers and platforms, provides a limited post-mortem right, and protects parody, news, criticism and art more clearly than the present case-by-case injunctions do.