Italian PM files to trademark her voice against AI threats

Giorgia Meloni has filed to trademark her voice with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, saying she wants protection from AI deepfakes. Italy’s prime minister confirmed the application through her office, and it includes a four-second recording of her saying “Io sono Giorgia” twice.

The phrase is already loaded. It was the title of Meloni’s 2021 autobiography and has been tied to her political campaigns, so this is not just about stopping strangers from cloning a random soundbite. She’s trying to lock down a piece of her public identity before next year’s general elections in Italy.

Meloni is not the first public figure to go after AI-driven imitation. In January, Matthew McConaughey trademarked his image and voice. Taylor Swift followed in April with three US trademark applications, including one using a stage photo from her Eras Tour and two audio clips from album promotion.

The rush for protection makes sense when you look at how easy voice cloning has become. AI can build a quick copy from only a few seconds of audio, while better versions usually need hours of recordings. That gap matters, because the cheap kind is already good enough to cause damage.

Meloni has seen the damage up close. Last year she sought €100,000 in damages after deepfake porn videos of her appeared online, and in May she warned about AI-generated images of herself in lingerie circulating on social media. Her point was blunt: she can protect herself, but many people cannot. And that, more than the trademark paperwork, is the real story here.