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An AI-generated George Carlin “comedy special” on YouTube has sparked backlash, including from the late comedian’s daughter, Kelly Carlin.
Created by Dudesy — an “AI comedian” created by two men who host a podcast also called Dudesy — the hourlong video, titled “I’m Glad I’m Dead,” delves into topics like mass shootings, reality TV, and trans rights. The video opens with a disclaimer from the AI bot saying it’s doing an impersonation of Carlin after taking in all of his material.
The jokes are delivered by a voice made to sound like the late comedian’s, and the video playing in the background is a series of eerie AI-generated images of humans with too many teeth and too many fingers. The endeavor is deeply creepy — and not particularly funny.
The creators did not have permission from the Carlin estate to create an AI stand-up in his likeness, Kelly Carlin said.
“My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination,” she wrote on X. “No machine will ever replace his genius. These AI generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again.”
And legal action may be coming. She told The Daily Beast, “We’re having conversations with lawyers right now, so we’ll see what happens with that for us.”
There are major concerns about AI encroaching on and exploiting actors’ likenesses — the issue was at the center of disagreements between Hollywood studios and SAG-AFTRA that led to the longest actors strike in history.
And Carlin is not the first dead celebrity to have their likeness replicated by artificial intelligence. Zelda Williams, the daughter of late actor Robin Williams, said in a statement on Instagram in October that people have trained AI to re-create “actors who cannot consent, like Dad.”
“I’ve already heard AI used to get his ‘voice’ to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings,” she wrote at the time.