NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has granted interim relief to Gautam Gambhir, restraining several social media users from creating or sharing unauthorised AI-generated content using his name, image, voice or other personal attributes.Justice Jyoti Singh, while hearing a lawsuit filed by Gambhir, observed that as one of the “most decorated cricketers of this country”, he has the right to “protect his name, likeness and all other attributes of his personality and no third party has a right to use these attributes without his consent/authorisation”.Gambhir, who represented India in 58 Tests, 147 ODIs and 37 T20Is between 2004 and 2016, approached the court seeking protection against what he described as a coordinated campaign involving digital impersonation, deepfake videos and unauthorised commercial use of his identity across social media platforms.
The plea stated that several accounts were using artificial intelligence tools such as face-swapping and voice-cloning to create realistic but fake videos of him. It also alleged that merchandise featuring his image was being sold online without permission.“Till the next date of hearing, defendants No. 1 to 10 (including unknown entities) are restrained from using and/or in any manner, directly or indirectly, exploiting or misappropriating plaintiff’s: (i) names Gautam Gambhir, Gauti and GG; (ii) image; (iii) voice; and (iv) likeness and/or any other attribute of his persona, without his authorisation or consent, for any commercial and/or personal gain, through the use of technology, including but not limited to artificial intelligence, generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, deepfakes, AI chatbots, face morphing and/or any other mediums and formats, amounting to violation of plaintiff’s personality/publicity rights,” the court said in the order passed on March 25.
“The said defendants are also restrained from creating, publishing, uploading, sharing, resharing, disseminating and/or amplifying in any manner, any photographs, audio recordings, video recordings and/or any audio-visual depictions featuring and/or using any attributes of plaintiff’s persona, including through style of speech, face swapping, morphing, superimposing and/or any AI generated or deepfake representation,” it said, and listed the matter for next hearing on May 19.The court also directed Amazon and Flipkart, along with Google and Meta Platforms Inc, to remove certain objectionable content within 36 hours.Advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, appearing for Gambhir, argued that the fake content had “material consequence” on him, citing fabricated videos showing him resigning as head coach or assaulting a fellow player.He also told the court that one account had posted a face-swapped video placing Gambhir’s image on that of Mahatma Gandhi, which gained lakhs of views and amounted to serious misrepresentation and violation of his personality rights.
