The NIL Edge – December 19th, 2025
AI Risks for Athletes: Legal Exposure in the Era of Synthetic Identity
Artificial intelligence is reshaping how public figures — including athletes — are seen, heard, and even impersonated. As you build your brand, navigate NIL deals, and manage your public persona, it’s critical to understand how AI could put your name, image, voice, and likeness at legal risk.
AI tools now enable the realistic creation of “digital replicas”: synthetic images, video, and audio based on publicly available media. These tools aren’t just theoretical — scammers are already using them to create convincing deepfakes of celebrities and athletes. Legally, this raises serious issues:
Right of Publicity — Current laws may not clearly address using AI to replicate someone’s likeness without their permission.
Fraud & Impersonation — AI-generated content is being used in scams.
Data & Ownership — Performance data, biometric metrics, and voice samples (from training apps, wearables, or social media) could feed into future AI models. The legal landscape for who “owns” that data. — or how it can be used — is still emerging, particularly when tied to name/image/likeness rights.
In this six-part series, we’ll explore:
How deepfakes and AI impersonation pose identity risk
What AI-powered social engineering means for athlete security
The legal complexity of AI, NIL, and likeness ownership
Emerging risks around biometric data and performance analytics
The intersection of AI and sports integrity / betting
How AI-generated content can damage your reputation
You deserve more than a reactive approach. Knowing what’s at stake, and what legal tools may or may not yet exist, is the best way to protect your brand, your rights, and your future.
PART 1 — Deepfakes, Identity Theft & AI Impersonation: The New Legal Threat to Athlete Identity
Athletes have always dealt with impersonation: fake accounts, unauthorized merch, and people misusing your name to build their own following. But AI has turned basic impersonation into a far more sophisticated and legally complex risk.
Today, anyone with a smartphone can generate realistic video, audio, or images of you, even if you’ve never stepped into a studio or spoken the words they put in your mouth. For athletes building NIL value, managing endorsement relationships, or protecting their professional reputation, this is more than a PR issue. It’s a legal one.
1. Deepfakes Are Already Targeting Fans and Athletes
This is no longer hypothetical. News outlets have already documented scammers using AI-generated replicas of well-known athletes to deceive fans.
For example, WSFA reported that AI-generated deepfake videos and fake pages featuring athletes have been used to manipulate fans into engaging with fraudulent content and scams. See WSFA, “AI scammers target sports fans with celebrity deepfakes” (Sept. 5, 2025):
https://www.wsfa.com/2025/09/05/ai-scammers-target-sports-fans-with-celebrity-deepfakes/
This matters because:
Deepfakes now look real enough that fans cannot distinguish them from legitimate content.
Scammers use these fakes to solicit money, promote phony giveaways, and lure people into harmful links.
The athlete usually doesn’t even know it’s happening until damage has occurred.
When a fraudulent video is “your face” asking fans to send money or invest in something, the reputational fallout can be immediate and severe.
2. Your Rights May Not Fully Protect You—Yet
The right of publicity is your strongest legal protection, but AI has outpaced many state laws.
A recent American Bar Association analysis explains that most right-of-publicity statutes were written before synthetic AI existed—and do not clearly address how to treat digital replicas generated without the athlete’s participation. See American Bar Association, “From Deepfakes to Deepfame: The Complexities of the Right of Publicity in an AI World”:
Complications include:
Whether a deepfake counts as a “likeness” under the statute
Whether AI voice clones are protected the same way as image or name
Whether the creator of the deepfake can hide behind First Amendment arguments
Whether the athlete must show commercial use or whether non-commercial misappropriation still applies
This uncertainty slows down enforcement and complicates litigation strategy.
3. AI Impersonation is Fueling New Fraud Schemes
Athletes are prime targets for AI-enabled scams because you are both visible and trusted. Fraudsters know fans will respond if they believe you are speaking.
The Ohio Attorney General has explicitly warned the public about deepfake-based celebrity endorsement scams, noting that AI-generated likenesses have already been used to push fraudulent crypto products and fake investment opportunities. See Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, “Beware of Deepfake Celebrity-Endorsement Scams” (April 11, 2024):
For athletes, this creates three layers of harm:
Fan Trust Damage — When a scammer uses your face or voice, fans blame you.
Brand & Sponsor Fallout — Brands may need reassurance that you weren’t involved.
Legal Exposure — You must move quickly to issue takedowns, notify partners, and preserve evidence.
Even if you win legally, the reputational cost can be high.
4. Why Athletes Are Uniquely Vulnerable
Athletes face a perfect storm of risk:
Massive public visibility combined with
high emotional connection between fans and players, plus
tons of video, audio, and photos available online, which
makes you easy fuel for AI training models—whether authorized or not.
Your likeness is both more valuable and more exposed than nearly any other public figure.
This means AI-generated impersonation can undermine:
NIL value
Sponsor confidence
Integrity and trust within your fan base
Future earning potential
Personal security
Your reputation for authenticity
For a professional athlete or a college athlete building NIL momentum, the stakes are not abstract.
They are immediate.
5. What’s Coming Next in This Series
In the next article, we’ll move into Part 2:
AI-Powered Social Engineering & Athlete Security: How Scammers Use Your Image and Voice to Target Your Inner Circle
This will cover emerging schemes where deepfakes of athletes are used to manipulate parents, agents, financial advisors, coaches, and even teammates.
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