Your face, your body and your voice are the product. For most of modeling history, a signed contract meant a photographer, a set and a set of usage terms: where an image could run, for how long, in which territories. Today, a single clause can let a client scan your body, build a digital version of you and use it long after you have left the building. In some cases that version can be made to pose, move and sell things you never agreed to.
This is not a distant scenario. Brands are building libraries of digital twins from real models, lawmakers are racing to catch up, and lawyers who work with fashion clients report an uptick in lawsuits from models claiming AI-generated images were used inappropriately, including altering the original pose into something different and at times more provocative. As part of our ongoing series on building a modeling career, here is what every male model should understand about AI, contracts and image rights before the next booking.
What a Digital Replica Actually Is
Under the New York State Fashion Workers Act, a digital replica is a computer-generated or artificial intelligence-enhanced representation of a model’s likeness, which may include the face, body or voice, and which recreates or replaces the model’s appearance or performance. Routine retouching, color correction and standard post-production are excluded.
That distinction matters. Cleaning up a blemish is retouching. Generating new images of you from a body scan, swapping your face onto another body, extending a campaign with synthetic shots or cloning your voice is a digital replica. Know which side of the line each clause in your contract falls on.
The Legal Ground Under Your Feet
The law is moving quickly, and it is uneven. Here is where things stand.
New York: The Fashion Workers Act
In effect since June 19, 2025, the Act is the strongest model-specific protection in the United States. It requires that the creation or use of a model’s digital replica be covered by separate, written consent, distinct from the representation agreement. It also requires model management companies to register with the state, post a surety bond, act as fiduciaries for their models, provide a written deal memo before work begins, and obtain written approval for expenses and deductions. Blanket powers of attorney are prohibited. Models now have a private right of action if their agencies violate the law.
Clients, meaning brands, designers, advertising agencies, stylists and photographers, carry their own duties under the Act, and can be held accountable when they hire models directly or through intermediaries.
California: AB 2602
For new performances fixed on or after January 1, 2025, a contract provision allowing a digital replica to stand in for work you would otherwise have performed in person can be unenforceable if it lacks a reasonably specific description of the intended uses and you were not represented by a lawyer or a union. The takeaway: vague language is a weakness for the client, and professional representation strengthens your position. Califonia’s legislation is asking clearly and defending what rights you have over the old version of yourself.
Federal: The NO FAKES Act
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced the NO FAKES Act on June 18, 2026. If passed, it would create a federal, licensable property right in your voice and visual likeness, make companies and platforms liable for unauthorized replicas, and set up a DMCA-style notice-and-takedown process. It is not law yet. It still needs to pass the full Senate and the House. Tennessee’s ELVIS Act, which already protects voice and likeness at state level, would not be preempted. The bill quotes “This bill creates a federal intellectual property right to protect individuals from unauthorized digital replicas (e.g., digital content made using generative artificial intelligence) of their voice and visual likeness.”
One practical point: these protections depend on where the work happens and where you are based. A job shot in Milan or London may fall under different rules than one shot in Manhattan. Do not assume a law protects you. Make the contract protect you.
The Clauses to Find, and Fight
Read every document before you sign, including the fine print on a casting form or a release handed to you on set. Look for these.
Vague Likeness Grants
Phrases such as “in all media now known or later developed,” “in perpetuity,” or “for any purpose” are broad boilerplate. Industry attorneys advise that broad boilerplate likeness grants are often insufficient under the new rules, and you should treat them as a warning sign. Ask for specific media, specific territories, a specific term and a specific campaign.
Bundled Consent
AI rights should never be buried inside a general usage clause or the agency agreement. If digital replica consent sits in the same paragraph as standard image rights, ask for it to be separated, or removed.
Undefined Alterations
Be wary of undefined terms such as “stylistic alterations,” “enhancements” or “modifications.” Ask exactly what they allow. Can your pose be changed? Your body shape? Your skin tone? Your expression? Can you be placed in a different outfit, a different setting, a different context? If the answer is unclear, the clause is too loose.
Training and Data Rights
Ask whether your images, scans or measurements can be used to train an AI system, and whether the client, the photographer or a vendor can retain or license that data. If the contract is silent, ask for a written exclusion.
Sublicensing and Transfer
Check whether the client can pass your likeness to affiliates, agencies, vendors or future owners of the brand. Your consent should apply to the named client and the named campaign only.
The Afterlife Clause
What happens to AI-generated or AI-altered depictions of you when the contract ends? Require deletion, or a clear end date after which the client may no longer use or distribute them.
Missing Compensation
A scan or replica is a separate use of your likeness and should be separately paid. If a contract grants AI rights for nothing extra, you are being asked to give away an asset.
What to Ask Your Agent
Your agency negotiates on your behalf, and in New York it now has a legal duty to act in your interest. Put these questions to your agent before every booking, and ask for the answers in writing.
- Does this job involve any scanning, 3D capture, motion capture, voice recording or AI processing of my image?
- Does the deal memo list every usage, including media, territory, duration and exclusivity?
- Is any digital replica consent included, and is it separate from the booking and the representation agreement?
- Who owns the scans and source files, and where are they stored?
- Can the client alter my body, face, pose or voice, and how are those alterations defined?
- What is my payment for each use, and is AI use paid separately?
- Can the client sublicense or transfer my likeness to a third party?
- What happens to the files and any replicas at the end of the term?
- Will I get to approve final images where my likeness has been digitally altered?
- Is the agency registered and compliant in the market where I am working?
- Has anyone on the agency side negotiated AI terms for me before, and can I see the terms in writing?
Also look at your agency agreement itself. It should not give the agency a blanket power of attorney, and it should not grant them digital replica rights as a default. If your agent resists putting answers in writing, treat that as information.
What to Ask the Client
Through your agent, not around them, you can also ask the client directly.
- What exactly will this campaign use my image for, and where will it run?
- Do you use AI tools in post-production, and how?
- Will my images be used to create, train or refine any generative model?
- Who has access to the raw files?
- Can I see a clear, written statement of what you will not do with my likeness?
Professional clients expect these questions. The ones who bristle at them are telling you something.
How to Protect Your Image and Likeness Before a Shoot
Protection starts before you arrive. Use this checklist for every booking.
One Week Before
- Get the deal memo in writing, in a language you read fluently, and check that scope, pay, payment terms and usages match what was discussed.
- Confirm in writing whether any scanning, volumetric capture, motion capture or voice work will happen on the day.
- If it will, request the digital replica consent as a separate document, with a specific description of how the replica will be used and what you will be paid for it.
- Have an attorney who works with talent review anything unusual. The cost is small compared with the value of your likeness.
On the Day
- Do not sign anything new on set without your agent seeing it first. A revised release handed over minutes before call time is a common pressure point. You are entitled to say you will send it to your agent.
- Ask whether behind-the-scenes content, test shots and extra captures are covered by the deal. Unscripted images can fall outside what you agreed to.
- Know who is capturing what. If a body scan or a series of reference frames is being taken, ask what it is for and where it will be stored.
- Under New York law, you can bring a representative to set. Use that right when the terms are unusual.
After the Shoot
- Keep copies of the deal memo, the signed release, every email about usage and the final invoice.
- Ask to see the final images before they are published when your likeness has been retouched beyond the routine.
- Set up alerts for your name and search for your image periodically, so you find misuse early.
- Keep your own portfolio and social accounts clear about which images are licensed and for what.
If Something Goes Wrong
If you find an AI-generated image of yourself that you did not agree to, move in order.
- Capture evidence: screenshots, links, dates and the account that posted it.
- Contact your agent immediately and compare the image with what your contract allows.
- Send a written takedown request to the platform and the client. Existing state laws and platform policies already give you routes to do this, and a federal process would follow if the NO FAKES Act passes.
- Speak to an attorney. Organizations such as the Model Alliance can connect models to the right lawyers, although they cannot give legal advice themselves.
Finally, AI has not made models obsolete, and it has not made contracts optional. It has made them the most important document in your career. The models who stay in control of their image in 2027 will be the ones who ask the uncomfortable questions early, insist on separate and specific consent, get everything in writing and treat their likeness as the asset it is. Brands that respect that will still want to work with you. The ones that do not were never going to protect you.
This article is for general information and does not constitute legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and are changing quickly. Consult a qualified attorney about any contract you are asked to sign.
