The makers of an hour-long AI-generated comedy special mimicking the late and great American comedian and actor George Carlin have been criticized for, apparently, not obtaining explicit permission from his family to impersonate his voice and style for the vid.
The show, titled “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” was uploaded on Tuesday to YouTube by actor and comedian Will Sasso and podcaster Chad Kultgen.
It appears the duo have crafted an AI personality called Dudesy that attempts to impersonate celebrities – in this instance, George Carlin.
The underlying fake persona doesn’t just try to sound like the modern-day philosopher, while acknowledging repeatedly it’s not him, it uses a script that he didn’t write either.
Carlin’s daughter Kelly wasn’t particularly amused to learn the pair had trained some generative neural network on her father’s work. This week she claimed “zero permission [was] granted” to the creators for the episode, and slammed the AI-based routine.
She said her dad had spent a lifetime perfecting his craft, and no machine (or someone hiding behind a machine) could ever replace his genius.
“These AI generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again. Let’s let the artist’s work speak for itself.
Humans are so afraid of the void that we can’t let what has fallen into it stay there,” she added.Â
When asked on Twitter what’s the problem with an AI impressionist riffing off her dad, Carlin replied: “I’m worried about his legacy.
His reputation. His art. I’m allowed to do that as his daughter and while I’m alive.”
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