Having dismantled opacity in how models get booked and paid, the platform now takes on how their faces are used without consent in the age of AI

NEW YORK and SEOUL, South Korea, April 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Spotlite, the leading platform in Asia that brought transparency to how models get booked and paid, is now taking on the next version of the same problem. The company today announced the closed beta of IP Protection, a product that lets creators find where their face appears online and act against unauthorized use.

For most models, the question of where their image ends up has never had a satisfying answer. It disappears into contracts they didn’t fully read, campaigns they were never notified about, and increasingly, into AI generated synthetic content they never consented to.

The Same Problem, a New Era

Spotlite co-founder and CSO Benjamin Alexander Hori spent 15 years as an international model. Represented by IMG Models, he walked runways for Dolce & Gabbana and Fendi, and fronted campaigns for Adidas. Then he received a payment statement showing one-fifth of what he expected. That gap between what brands paid and what models took home became the company’s founding problem to solve. As WWD’s Sourcing Journal reported this week, Spotlite was built to dismantle a commission-heavy system that Hori said “has let models down for decades.”

IP Protection extends that mission into the AI era. Where models once lost control of their earnings through hidden deductions, they are now losing control of their faces: scraped, replicated, and deployed in AI-generated content without their knowledge or consent. The product gives creators the visibility to see where their likeness appears, and the tools to act on it.

“When I was modeling, I knew something was wrong every time a statement landed in my inbox. I just had no way to see it clearly, and no system to help me do anything about it. That’s the same feeling creators have with AI today. Their face is out there, being used in ways they never agreed to, and they have no visibility and no recourse. IP Protection is built to change that.” – Benjamin Alexander Hori, Co-founder & CSO, Spotlite

How IP Protection Works

IP Protection gives any creator a clear, actionable picture of where their likeness appears online, and what to do about it. A creator uploads their image, and the product runs a reverse image search across the internet, surfacing every appearance of their face and automatically classifying each result as High, Medium, or Low risk. From there, they can generate a professional takedown report and act on unauthorized use directly.

A model’s face is their identity, not a product anyone can remix. While the industry has been chasing scale without consent, we’re building the infrastructure to make sure creators own what’s theirs is, because everyone should be able to protect their digital identity.” – Hannah Choi, Co-founder & CEO, Spotlite

A Shifting Regulatory Landscape

IP Protection launches as regulation begins to catch up with the technology. New York’s Fashion Workers Act, which took effect in June 2025, now requires explicit written consent before a model’s digital replica can be created or used, with the scope, purpose, and compensation specified upfront. California’s AB 2602 and Illinois’s HB 4875, both in effect since January 2025, extend similar protections to performers more broadly. At the federal level, the TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed into law in May 2025, became the first federal statute to criminalize non-consensual deepfakes, while the pending NO FAKES Act would establish the first federal right against unauthorized digital replicas of voice and likeness.

About Spotlite

Spotlite is a creator economy platform building consent-first infrastructure for the age of AI. Founded in Seoul in 2023 by Benjamin Alexander Hori and Hannah Choi, the company connects 12,000+ users and 150+ agency partners with 8,900+ brand customers across global markets. Spotlite is backed by Antler, Strong Ventures, The Ventures, and Rabbit VC. For more information, please visit – https://spotlite.global/en

Media Contact: Sonia Awan for Spotlite Global. soniaawan@outbloompr.net

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SOURCE Spotlite