Authentic Interactions Launches Digital Likeness Directive, an Open Standard Giving People Control Over AI Recreations

Co-signed by StoryFile, Lookalike.com, and Authentex, the voluntary framework lets people decide who may recreate them, now and after they die.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Authentic Interactions (AI Inc), a company building the trust infrastructure for the next generation of AI through consent-based standards for digital likenesses, is taking a leadership position on one of AI's most complex ethical questions: who controls a person's digital likeness, both during their lifetime and after death. The company's answer is the Digital Likeness Directive (DLD), an open standard designed to give individuals direct, portable control over if and how their likeness can be digitally recreated by AI. Version 1.0 is published in draft for public comment through September 30, 2026, and is co-signed by StoryFile, Lookalike.com, and Authentex.

The DLD addresses a gap the AI industry has not yet solved on its own: there is currently no consistent way for a person, or their family after they pass away, to consent to or object to an AI recreation of them. Every platform handles requests differently, and legal protections vary widely by state and country. The standard is designed to give people and families one clear way to register their wishes and one clear process platforms can follow to honor them.

The DLD has two parts. The first is the Directive, a record created while a person is alive, of exactly what they permit, spanning six areas: which formats can be used (text, voice, video), whether recreations may only replay real recordings or also generate new synthetic speech and behavior, who can access the recreation, whether commercial use is allowed, what source material an AI may draw on, and which topics a recreation is barred from addressing. A person's Directive is portable across any platform that adopts the standard and can be as simple as a single instruction not to be recreated at all.

The second is a takedown process: platforms that adopt the standard commit to a 14-day window to either produce valid authorization for a recreation or remove it. For people who leave no Directive, decision-making authority follows the same order used in existing law for decisions about a person's remains so that families are never left without a clear answer, and the platform itself never acts as the arbiter of a dispute.

The standard arrives alongside a shifting legal landscape, including the federal NO FAKES Act, which advanced out of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee recently and new European Union synthetic media disclosure rules taking effect on August 2nd. Authentic Interactions says existing and emerging law addresses liability after harm has occurred, but does not yet give platforms real-time infrastructure to honor a person's wishes at the moment a recreation is created or challenged: the gap the DLD is built to close.

"We built StoryFile because we believe people deserve to be remembered accurately, and on their own terms," said Alex Quinn, CEO of Authentic Interactions. "As AI makes it easier than ever to recreate someone's voice or face, that same technology has to make it just as easy for that person or their family to say yes, no, or 'only like this.' The Digital Likeness Directive isn't about slowing innovation down; it's about making sure the person being recreated is always the one who gets the final say."

Registering a refusal is free, requires no relationship with Authentic Interactions, and takes only identity verification. The registry itself stores no photos, voice data, or biometrics, and cannot be searched by face or voice. Authentic Interactions has also committed to making the list of adopting platforms and dispute outcomes public, and to transferring stewardship of the standard to a neutral foundation as adoption grows.

Authentic Interactions is inviting public comment on the draft standard through September 30, 2026, and is open to additional platforms co-signing or adopting the DLD. Comments and adoption inquiries can be directed to [email protected].

About Authentic Interactions (AI Inc.)

Authentic Interactions (AI Inc.) is a technology company at the forefront of conversational AI, digital legacy preservation, and immersive human experience. Through its brands StoryFile and Lookalike, the company develops tools that allow individuals and organizations to preserve stories, engage audiences, and explore the boundaries of what it means to live on.

StoryFile is the world's most advanced conversational video AI platform, enabling individuals and organizations to create authentic, interactive video experiences that can answer questions and engage audiences in real time.

Lookalike.com is generative AI technology that creates hyper-realistic digital representations through real-time video synthesis, enabling entirely new forms of storytelling, preservation, and human connection. Users can build an AI agent in minutes from existing photographs and documents.

Media Contact:

Ludington Media on behalf of Authentic Interactions

New York, NY

[email protected]

551 795 5950

SOURCE Authentic Interactions