Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni filed a request on Monday to register her voice as a trademark, aiming to protect herself against artificial intelligence-generated clones and deepfakes, reports Politico.
The application submitted to the European Union Intellectual Property Office, dated October 5, targets a sound mark without text: a four-second recording in which Meloni repeats the phrase “Io sono Giorgia Meloni”.
The phrase refers to the title of his autobiography from 2021 and to a speech held at a rally in 2019, which was later turned into a viral disco remix. The measure comes after years of manipulated materials targeting the Prime Minister of Italy.
In March 2024, an Italian court requested Meloni to testify in a civil trial regarding alleged pornographic deepfakes created using her image. Other sexualized images of Meloni, manipulated with the help of AI, circulated online and in May of that year, including one where she appeared in lingerie.
The Italian leader warned in a Facebook post that deepfakes can “deceive, manipulate, and target anyone”. “I can defend myself. Many others cannot,” she wrote.
The EU’s amended AI law, adopted in July, requires that deepfakes be clearly identified and bans AI systems that generate sexual images, videos, or audio recordings without the consent of identifiable individuals. It also prohibits systems that generate materials involving sexual abuse of children.
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