Jono Manson isn’t your typical expert witness seen at the New Mexico Legislature. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM)
Meet Jono Manson: musician, audio engineer, producer – and expert witness on the human soul.
Manson provided testimony on House Bill 221, which would regulate the use of artificial intelligence to create a digital replica of an artist’s voice or likeness, and prohibit such use without their consent and compensation.
The nature of lawmaking often relegates the role of expert to wonks: economists, attorneys and the like.
But it was Mason who joined the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tara Lujan (D-Santa Fe), to testify before lawmakers on the bill during a hearing before the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee last week.
“It’s difficult enough for us, as artists, to chase after the royalties that are due to us from the work we actually have created, without also having to also chase after work that’s being created in our likeness without our consent,” he told Source NM.
In an interview on Thursday, Manson said the issue of digital replicas is a matter of economic justice for everyday musicians being underpaid and exploited by streaming platforms, of countering plagiarism and even of what constitutes art and human expression.
“What makes human beings special and unique among all the species living and now extinct who’ve walked this planet?” he said. “Part of that is our ability to express ourselves through these various forms of expression. If we’re choosing to give up that control, then it in a sense makes us, in my opinion, less human.”
HB221 isn’t designed to protect only pop stars or people whose faces and voices we instantly recognize, Manson said, but the vast majority of working musicians who try to make a living performing and recording music.
Manson runs The Kitchen Sink, a recording studio in Santa Fe.
Manson said Feb. 21 was the first time he had ever testified in front of a legislative committee. He said he hosts the annual New Mexico district advocate meeting for Recording Academy, where he has advocated for legislation related to creatives in the music field.
Manson said while he doesn’t know if his voice or likeness has been replicated, technology is advancing faster than legislation can keep up, and he’s sure it’s already happening to others.
For example, applications exist that allow a producer to make a digital replica of a studio singer’s voice, then make that replica sing whatever words they feed it, with whatever melody, inflection or volume they choose, on any subsequent record they want, he said.
“If there’s no law prohibiting me from doing that, then I can do it without paying her to do it, which would put her out of work,” Manson said. “I don’t do it because I’m opposed to it and plus, I find joy in human interaction.”
The bill passed the committee with Republicans in opposition, and awaits a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee.
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Cleared the floors
The House of Representatives voted 40-26 in favor of House Bill 260, which would prohibit some kinds of physical restraints of students in schools, including chemical restraint, mechanical restraint, prone restraint and seclusion without continuous line-of-sight supervision.
At press time on Thursday, the House was debating House Bill 252, which would create a three-year pilot program in five counties that would provide services or referrals, including legal representation, public assistance and economic support, to grandparents raising grandchildren and other kinship caregivers.
In the upper chamber, lawmakers passed a bill to strengthen the state’s powers on water pollution Wednesday evening.
During Thursday’s session, the Senate voted 31-7 on Senate Bill 38, which would create an Office of Special Education in the Public Education Department.
The Senate voted 34-3 on a substitute version of Senate Bill 115, which would authorize the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority to loan money for infrastructure and community development projects.
The Senate voted unanimously in favor Senate Bill 280, which would make the New Mexico Military Institute eligible for public school capital outlay funding; Senate Bill 283, which would require the Children, Youth and Families Department to apply for federal benefits on behalf of children in its custody; Senate Bill 7, which would allow municipalities to manage stormwater runoff as a utility; and Senate Joint Resolution 11, which would allow school boards to have bond elections during general elections.
The Senate, without debate, voted unanimously in favor of Senate Bill 343, which would strike a single line in the law that some school districts have interpreted in order to deny teachers a minimum salary for doing career and technical education; and Senate Bill 202, which would streamline agency processes, investment management, and conflicts of law.
Bill watch
A bill creating a Turquoise Alert, similar to a Silver Alert or an Amber Alert, passed a Senate Committee on Thursday afternoon. The bill compels the state Department of Public Safety to issue alerts for Indigenous people reported missing, an effort to increase awareness and stem the tide of missing and murdered Indigenous people in New Mexico.
The House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee approved a bill that would ban single-use plastic bags, which now heads to House Commerce and Economic Development.
The Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee tabled a proposal that encouraged state fund managers to invest savings into Bitcoin.
On Thursday morning, the Senate Conservation Committee passed a substitute version of Senate Bill 358, which would create a trust fund to pay for horse rescues and homeless horses; and Senate Bill 469, which would set aside $15 million to remove hazard trees near power transmission lines of the Mora-San Miguel Electric Cooperative.
The Senate Finance Committee unanimously passed Senate Bill 199, which would move more liquor excise tax revenues to the Department of Finance and Administration and less to local governments; and voted 7-3 in favor on Senate Joint Resolution 3, which would create an elected 11-member state school board.
In a hearing on Wednesday night, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 57, which would create an exemption for public sector abortion providers in the state’s sunshine law; Senate Bill 299, which would require a resigning lawmaker to notify county commissioners in their district about their seat becoming vacant; and Senate Bill 319, which would require all drivers to carry uninsured and underinsured motorist insurance for their vehicles.
Reporter Patrick Lohmann contributed reporting to this story.
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