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In the United States, you can use AI-generated video, but there is no single rule that answers every rights question. Copyright depends on the human-authored expression in the video; depicting a recognizable person raises separate likeness and privacy issues; and disclosure duties can come from law or from the platform where you publish. The practical answer turns on what the video shows, how it was made, whose identity or source material it uses, and where and why you distribute it. This overview is current as of October 4, 2026; state law and platform policies can change.
Start by separating the three rights questions
A video can be lawful to create but problematic to publish—or have copyrightable human-authored elements while still using someone’s identity without appropriate permission. Before release, assess three issues independently:
- Copyright: Which expressive elements were created by a person, and which were determined by the AI system?
- Likeness and identity: Does the video depict or imitate an identifiable real person, and is the use authorized or otherwise legally permissible?
- Disclosure: Does applicable law or the publishing platform require you to identify synthetic or altered content?
Jurisdiction, consent, purpose, realism, source material, and distribution platform can all affect the result. A disclaimer or a copyright claim does not settle the other questions.
Can you copyright a video made with AI?
The U.S. Copyright Office’s January 29, 2025 report on copyrightability explains that AI involvement does not automatically disqualify a work. Copyright can protect expressive elements sufficiently determined by a human author. Human-authored material perceptible in the output, and a person’s creative arrangement or modification of AI-generated material, may qualify. Prompts alone are not enough by themselves to establish human authorship of the resulting output.
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The Register of Copyrights and Director of the Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter, put the principle this way: “Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection.” That does not mean the person who entered a prompt owns every image, sound, or other element the system generated. Protection may instead cover the human-created writing, edits, selection, sequencing, or arrangement—and may be narrower than a claim over all machine-determined material.
What human contributions matter?
Focus on what you actually authored or creatively shaped, not merely on whether you used an AI tool. For example, original narration or dialogue, substantive editing, and a creative sequence of selected clips may be relevant human contributions. The legal question remains whether the particular expressive material reflects sufficient human authorship; a particular workflow or contribution does not guarantee that a work will qualify for protection.
If authorship matters to your project, keep records of your writing, edits, clip selection, sequencing, and other meaningful creative decisions. Records can help explain what you contributed, but do not guarantee copyright ownership or registration.
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What has the Copyright Office said about AI training?
Copyrightability of a finished video is distinct from legal questions about material used to train AI systems. The Office’s AI initiative index lists Part 1, on digital replicas, as published July 31, 2024; Part 2, on copyrightability, as published January 29, 2025; and a prepublication Part 3 report on training, released May 9, 2025. The index described the final version of Part 3 as forthcoming and said no substantive changes to its analysis or conclusions were expected. That status is not a final legal rule resolving every training question.
Can you use someone’s face or voice in an AI video?
Copyright in your video and permission to depict a person are separate matters. The Copyright Office’s July 31, 2024 announcement described a digital replica as a video, image, or audio recording that is digitally created or manipulated to realistically but falsely depict an individual. A person’s recognizable face or voice can raise privacy, publicity, false-endorsement, or other legal issues even if your edits or arrangement contain human-authored material.
There is no simple nationwide permission rule for every use. Relevant protections and exceptions vary by state and context, and the Copyright Office’s state-law overview reflects its 2024 publication date rather than a current survey of every state’s law. The Office recommended that Congress create federal protection against knowing distribution of unauthorized digital replicas; that recommendation did not itself enact a general federal right of publicity.
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When is permission especially important?
As a practical safeguard, obtain informed permission before using an identifiable person’s face or voice in commercial or otherwise sensitive material. Get jurisdiction-specific legal review before publishing a realistic impersonation, a depiction that suggests endorsement, material using a professional performer’s identity, or political content. These are prudent steps in a variable legal landscape, not a claim that permission is legally required in every conceivable circumstance.
The Copyright Office’s Part 1 report identifies several legal frameworks that may be relevant to unauthorized replicas, including state privacy and publicity rights and federal copyright, FTC Act, Lanham Act, and Communications Act provisions. Which rules apply depends on the facts and jurisdiction. Do not assume that labeling a video as AI-generated, or adding a disclaimer, makes an otherwise unauthorized use lawful.
When do you have to disclose that a video uses AI?
Disclosure obligations can come from law or from a platform’s own rules. A platform requirement is not automatically a universal legal standard, and satisfying a platform rule does not necessarily satisfy legal disclosure duties. Check both before publishing; policies and upload interfaces can change.
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YouTube: realistic, meaningfully altered or generated content
YouTube’s creator guidance requires disclosure when AI meaningfully alters or generates content that appears realistic. Its examples include making a real person appear to say or do something they did not, changing footage of a real event or place, or generating a realistic scene that never occurred. The guidance also describes some minor aesthetic edits and production assistance as not requiring disclosure. These are YouTube policy examples, not a general legal test. Check the current guidance and YouTube Studio upload flow when you publish.
Google Ads: qualifying election advertisements
Google has a separate political-content policy for election ads. It requires disclosure when an ad contains synthetic or digitally altered content that inauthentically depicts real or realistic-looking people or events. In listed formats, Google may generate the in-ad disclosure; in other formats, the advertiser must provide a clear, prominent disclosure. Google says its platform disclosure does not replace other disclosures required by law.
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Where disclosure is required, place it close enough to the video to be noticed and use wording that identifies what is synthetic or altered. A vague statement such as “AI may have been used” may not tell viewers whether a person’s words, an event, or an entire scene was generated. Clear wording is sound publishing practice; it is not a substitute for determining which legal or platform rule applies.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What if the video is a nonconsensual intimate deepfake?
Nonconsensual intimate imagery is a distinct and serious category, not just another disclosure question. FTC guidance on the TAKE IT DOWN Act states that Section 3 took effect on May 19, 2026. For covered platforms, the platform notice-and-removal duties apply to qualifying nonconsensual intimate photos or videos, including digital forgeries created or altered with software or AI. After receiving a valid request, a covered platform must remove the content and known identical copies within 48 hours.
Those platform removal duties should not be confused with the Act’s separate criminal provisions concerning publication, or treated as a rule for every type of AI-generated video. The 48-hour requirement described here concerns a covered platform’s response to a valid request; it is not a general deadline for every site or every complaint.
Quick Recap
How to check a video before publishing
- Identify the human-authored material. Note what you wrote, recorded, edited, selected, or arranged, and distinguish that work from elements generated by the AI system. Keep records if the extent of your contribution may matter.
- Review the inputs and source material. Check whether the video incorporates third-party footage, images, music, text, or other material, and whether you have the rights needed for the intended use.
- Check for a recognizable person or implied endorsement. If the video uses someone’s face, voice, or identity—especially in a commercial, sensitive, realistic, or political context—confirm permission where appropriate and seek legal review when the risks warrant it.
- Assess the jurisdiction and purpose. Consider where the depicted person and publisher are located, where the video will be distributed, and whether the use is commercial, political, entertainment, or noncommercial. State-law protections and context can change the analysis.
- Check the destination’s current rules. Review the platform’s disclosure requirements and its upload controls. For a YouTube upload or a Google election ad, use the respective current creator guidance or political-content policy rather than assuming one platform’s rule applies elsewhere.
- Write any required disclosure plainly. Describe accurately what was generated or altered, and make the disclosure noticeable in the relevant context. Do not treat a label as permission to use someone’s identity or source material.
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