Diego Carreto, a 26-year-old professional announcer from León, said on 25 September that his voice had been copied with AI, without his consent or any payment, for a Guanajuato state tourism campaign promoting the Vendimias wine-harvest festivals. The spots ran on radio, on social media and on the Visit México platform, and he says he neither authorised the use nor was paid for it.
According to AM, the ads were made not by the state government itself but by a private agency, Creorama. Carreto believes the demo reels he posts online to find work were used to train the voice model. His complaint was taken up by the Mexican Association of Commercial Announcers (AMELOC), the National Association of Announcers of Mexico and well-known voice actor Mario Filio, and after a formal request and public pressure the state tourism secretariat pulled the commercials from its official channels.
The case lands a few months after Mexico changed Article 87 of its federal copyright law. The reform, published on 14 May, says a person's image, explicitly including the voice, may not be used without express consent, and that this covers material created or altered with AI. The presidency's legal counsel, Luisa María Alcalde, said at a July press conference that companies and media that use AI to generate or alter audio or video have a strict duty to tell the public, so that audiences are not misled. AM argues that because the law names AI directly, an agency cannot defend an unlicensed clone as mere innovation.
AM uses the case to set out what performers can do if their voice is cloned: demand payment and damages for the unauthorised use, seek a negotiated settlement, and make the case public so that agencies and government buyers start checking that the voices they pay for are legitimate.
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