HAND (Human & Digital) is launching a new Delaware Public Benefit Corporation, with plans to apply for 501(c)(6) trade association status, to manage and promote the continued development of the HAND Talent ID system.
This new entity will oversee what is being recognised as the world’s first global B2B Talent ID registry, a platform designed to enhance the visibility, royalty tracking, and revenue attribution for distinguished legal and natural persons. It also enables streamlined licensing and transparent tracking of consent-based digital replicas, while verifying the authenticity of fictional characters within the media production and distribution pipeline.
So far, in partnership with various industry collaborators, HAND has processed a vast data lake of over 4.4 million unique talent identifiers, from which approximately 120,000 globally unique, freely resolvable IDs have been verified. These include real individuals, fictional personas, and digitally replicated entertainment and sports figures.
The newly formed association, named HAND – The Universal Talent Identifier, is tasked with establishing HAND’s system as an industry-wide standard. A major U.S. talent agency has already joined as a charter member, and HAND is inviting other technology and cultural sector leaders to join the initiative.
Human & Digital, Inc., the original for-profit entity behind HAND, will continue its operations, offering advanced data transformation services, business analytics, and predictive insights to support the ecosystem built around the registry.
“We’re entering a transformative era for individual agency,” said HAND’s founder and CEO, Will Kreth. “While deepfakes present a clear threat, the licensing of realistic digital replicas—especially of prominent personalities—was already a booming, multi-billion-dollar business before generative AI, especially in AAA video games and live virtual performances like ABBA Voyage.”
Kreth added, “By forming a non-profit trade association, we can unify industry stakeholders around scalable, standards-based solutions for identifying and licensing both real talent and their digital counterparts. Our involvement with respected groups like the Coalition for Content Provenance & Authenticity (C2PA) and the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) further supports this mission, helping to accelerate industry adoption of our open Talent ID framework.”
Much like a “digital tracker” for talent, HAND automates the process of identifying, verifying, and authenticating talent-related digital assets. This helps protect the integrity of likenesses used in monetised content across audiovisual works and immersive digital platforms. Early adopters and beta users of HAND’s Talent ID include 12 international companies, such as Sony Pictures Entertainment, Fabric Data/BB Media, and the American Film Institute.
