Opinion
The daughter of the late great comedian George Carlin, who died of heart failure back in 2008 at the age of 71, is speaking out this week to slam an artificial intelligence-generated special that seeks to replicate him.
Carlin’s Daughter Sounds Off
“No machine will ever replace his genius,” Kelly Carlin told Rolling Stone.
Kelly was referring to an hour-long special from Dudesy, a podcast run by artificial intelligence, which seeks to reinvent Carlin’s signature style.
“What you’re about to hear is not George Carlin,” it announces at the start, adding that to replicate Carlin’s style, it “listened to all of George Carlin’s material and did my best to imitate his voice, cadence and attitude as well as the subject matter I think would have interested him today.”
“I know what all the stand-up comics across the globe are saying right now: ‘I’m an artist and my art form is too creative, too nuanced, too subtle to be replicated by a machine. No computer program can tell a fart joke as good as me,’” Dudesy continued, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Find out more about the special in the video below.
Kelly Doubles Down
Kelly took to the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to give her full thoughts on this AI attempt to replicate her father.
“My statement regarding the AI generated George Carlin special: My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination,” she wrote. “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.”
“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 continued. “Here’s an idea, how about we give some actual living human comedians a listen to? But if you want to listen to the genuine George Carlin, he has 14 specials that you can find anywhere.”
When asked “this clown had permission,” she was quick to reply, “ZERO PERMISSION GRANTED.”
Related: George Carlin Tears Apart Political Correctness
Robin Williams’ Daughter Rips AI
This comes months after the daughter of the late comedic actor Robin Williams slammed AI attempts to recreate him. Daily Mail reported that Zelda Williams, 34, took to her Instagram Story back in October to give her thoughts on the dispute between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), with AI being one of the key factors in it.
“I’ve witnessed for YEARS how many people want want to train these [AI] models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad,” she said. “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.”
Related: Robin Williams’ Daughter Blasts AI Attempts To Recreate Her Father – ‘I Find It Personally Disturbing’
This came after members of SAG and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) launched a strike back in May, partly to seek protection from AI, which is unrestricted at this time.
“This isn’t theoretical, it is very very real,” Zelda continued. “Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance.”
“These recreations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people, but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for,” she added.
With AI becoming more and more advanced every day, it will certainly be interesting to see what it is used for next. What do you think about this? Let us know in the comments section.
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