Towards a Harms Taxonomy of AI Likeness Generation

Generative artificial intelligence models, when trained on a sufficient number of a person's images, can replicate their identifying features in a photorealistic manner. We refer to this process as 'likeness generation'. Likeness-featuring synthetic outputs often present a person's likeness without their control or consent, and may lead to harmful consequences. This paper explores philosophical and policy issues surrounding generated likeness. It begins by offering a conceptual framework for understanding likeness generation by examining the novel capabilities introduced by generative systems. The paper then establishes a definition of likeness by tracing its historical development in legal literature. Building on this foundation, we present a taxonomy of harms associated with generated likeness, derived from a comprehensive meta-analysis of relevant literature. This taxonomy categorises harms into seven distinct groups, unified by shared characteristics. Utilising this taxonomy, we raise various considerations that need to be addressed for the deployment of appropriate mitigations. Given the multitude of stakeholders involved in both the creation and distribution of likeness, we introduce concepts such as indexical sufficiency, a distinction between generation and distribution, and harms as having a context-specific nature. This work aims to serve industry, policymakers, and future academic researchers in their efforts to address the societal challenges posed by likeness generation.