George Carlin’s estate filed a lawsuit against the producers hour comedy special featuring an AI copy of the comedian, as reported NBC News. The late comedian’s estate, including his daughter Kelly Carlin, filed a lawsuit last night in federal court in Los Angeles. He alleges that Dudesy, the online media company that posted the video, violated the artist’s right of publicity and infringed his copyright.
The video is called “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead” and features an hour of new “material” from the comedian, who died in 2008. As artificial intelligence replications go, it certainly won’t break any records. It’s audio only and honestly, it doesn’t even sound like Carlin. That sounds like a below-average impression of a comedian. It’s also very, very bad. Carlin had an extremely unique voice and this video is basically the main punchlines you can see coming from a mile away. There are very few odd puns. There is no righteous indignation. However, there are many jokes comparing Donald Trump to poop.
“I mostly understand and share George Carlin’s wish. I also want more time with my father. But to announce that he was ‘resurrected’ by artificial intelligence is ridiculous,” Kelly Carlin wrote in a statement. write that Carlin in this video is “a poorly executed facsimile put together by unscrupulous individuals”.
The estate’s attorney, Josh Schiller, later warned that AI risks becoming “a tool that allows actors in bad faith to replace creative expression, exploit creators’ already existing work, and enrich themselves at the expense of others.”
Dudesey, the channel that created and hosted the video, is actually run by popular comedian Will Sasso and author Chad Kultgen. They did not write the material here. According to one study, the artificial intelligence was trained on thousands of hours of Carlin programs to create facsimiles. report by NPR. However, Sasso and Kultge are named in the suit. The pair behind Dudesi make the AI-created Carly look like an impressionist impersonating a public figure.
Sasso suggested in a podcast last week that the AI version isn’t a replacement for the real thing, saying “it’s interesting how people warm to it.” The lawsuit calls the video “computer-generated clickbait that devalues Carly’s comedic output and damages her reputation.”
The complaint seeks unspecified damages and the immediate removal of “any video or audio copy” of the hour-long special. So if you want to hear Carl’s impression make blatant jokes about Taylor Swift, you better get on it while you can.
Of course, this is just the final salvo in the ongoing war Between AI algorithms and humans creating valuable works. This was at the root of the matter last year’s Hollywood writers’ holiday and the recent spate of AI-created celebrities used to deceive consumers. This is just the beginning. After all, this is an election year and bad actors have already taken advantage An artificial intelligence reproduction of President Biden’s voice Urging New Hampshire residents not to vote in last week’s primary election.
