WASHINGTON — A bipartisan effort to establish federal legal protections against unauthorized AI-generated replicas stalled in the Senate Wednesday after Sen. Ted Cruz objected to a fast-track attempt to advance the bill. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, sought unanimous consent for the NO FAKES Act, which would let people sue over certain AI-generated “deepfakes” and create a federal intellectual-property right in a person’s voice and visual likeness. The procedure allows a single senator to block action without a recorded vote; Cruz, a Texas Republican and chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, objected. Cruz said the legislation was not ready and could threaten free expression as written. He questioned whether AI-generated images and videos promoted on President Donald Trump’s social media accounts could violate the law, and raised concerns about parody sites such as The Onion. Blackburn argued the proposal protects creators without impeding creative work. She said it targets conduct involving online scams that would be illegal if carried out offline. “I am happy to work with you,” Cruz told her before adding, “But at least as of now, I object.” The objection does not itself permanently defeat the measure, but it prevented Blackburn from moving it forward through unanimous consent. Coons, a Delaware Democrat and co-sponsor, said lawmakers had held hearings, made technical revisions and marked up the bill, calling it the most developed AI-related measure before Congress and broadly bipartisan. The dispute is part of a longer rift between Cruz and Blackburn over AI legislation. Cruz supported the NO FAKES Act in the Senate Judiciary Committee over the summer, but the two senators did not reach agreement on a broader package that also addressed state AI regulation and children’s online safety. Cruz pointed to a separate law enacted during the current Congress that makes it a crime to knowingly publish sexually explicit images online without a subject’s consent, whether the images are real or AI-generated. The NO FAKES Act would take a different approach by giving people a federal avenue to seek civil remedies over unauthorized digital replicas.