Denmark Fights Deepfakes By Copyrighting Identities

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Someone deepfaked the United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio to contact foreign officials, a US governor, and a US Congress member. The current deepfake laws in the US are designed to specifically target “revenge porn” and other forms of non-consensual intimate imagery, and are insufficient to handle such scenarios.

However, Denmark might have an answer on how to deal with it.

Denmark vs Deepfakes: Copyright Your Face

To combat the problem of deepfake abuse, Denmark is pioneering a groundbreaking bill that gives people copyright control over their own digital likeness—face, voice and body. And this law will be given teeth.

“In the bill we agree and are sending an unequivocal message that everybody has the right to their own body, their own voice and their own facial features, which is apparently not how the current law is protecting people against generative AI,” Jakob Engel-Schmidt, Danish Culture Minister told The Guardian.

What’s in the bill?

The bill proposes a sui generis copyright control, which acts as a new IP category just for your identity. Here’s what it does:

• Grants every Danish citizen ownership of their voice, face, and body in AI-generated content.

• Lets individuals demand takedowns of unauthorised deepfakes.

• “Severe fines” for platforms for non-compliance.

• Provides special protections for artists and public figures.

• Exempts satire and parody, preserving freedom of expression.

A Unique Step

So far, other countries have focused on criminal penalties, transparency requirements, or state control. Denmark is doing something entirely different: using a well-established, enforceable framework under copyright law to empower individuals and hold platforms liable.

The law is currently under consultation and expected to pass by late 2025-early 2026, coinciding with Denmark's assumption of the EU Council Presidency.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio Deepfaked

In case you were wondering if deepfakes are still fringe tech: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was recently the victim of deepfake impersonation. 

Someone used his AI-generated voice clone and a fake Signal account to contact foreign officials, a US governor, and at least one member of US Congress, reports Bloomberg.

Bloomberg accessed a cable by the State Department earlier this month which stated that an unknown individual left voice messages and texts to at least five people, after creating a Signal account impersonating Rubio last month. 

However, regulatory efforts to tackle deepfakes in the US are currently restricted to non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), which primarily targets women. 

Maybe the US needs to try out something new to expand the scope of their laws (hint: speak to the Danes).

AI Builds Cancer-Fighting Proteins In Seconds

While the rest of us are busy with deepfakes and AI slop, some researchers are using AI to fight diseases like cancer and antibiotic-resistant infections like E. Coli.

Researchers from Monash University in Australia are using AI to design custom proteins in mere seconds, something that took years, marking a massive leap in biomedical research

Dr. Rhys Grinter and Associate Professor Gavin Knott co-led a study, published in Nature Communications, which provides a new AI-assisted method to generate ready-to-use proteins, paving the way for quicker and more affordable drug development and diagnostics.

Read: Inhibiting heme piracy by pathogenic Escherichia coli using de novo-designed proteins | Nature Communications 

Protein development to treat cancer and infections are currently nature-derived, through a time-intensive process involving in vitro evolution and selection.

"These new methods in deep learning enable efficient de novo design of proteins with specific characteristics and functions, lowering the cost and accelerating the development of novel protein binders and engineered enzymes," Grinter told ScienceDaily.

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