Robin Williams’ daughter wants people to stop sending her AI edits of her dad
Zelda Williams, daughter of the late legendary comic Robin Williams, wants people to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her deceased father, Variety reported on Monday. In an Instagram story, Zelda said, “Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” adding, “Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t.”
Telling people her father wouldn’t have wanted edits of himself made, Zelda asked people to “just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop,” saying, “It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want.”
She said the edits weren’t art, instead calling them “disgusting, over-processed hotdogs [made] out of the lives of human beings [and] the history of art”. Zelda called the concept “maddening”.
The Lisa Frankenstein director said AI was not “the future,” as many tout it to be. She said AI was just “badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be reconsumed”.
This isn’t the first time Zelda has spoken about the use of AI in the creative process. Entertainment Weekly earlier reported her posting about finding AI recreations of her father’s voice personally disturbing. She said they were “at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people, but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster”.
This comes as several ‘creative’ endeavours using AI have been slammed for stifling human creativity and disrespecting artists. In September, the introduction of an AI-generated actor created waves in the entertainment industry, sparking immediate backlash. That same month, an AI-edited rerelease of the Hindi film Raanjhanaa drew the ire of the film’s director and lead actor.
In July, an AI model being used in an advertisement in Vogue left fashion enthusiasts shocked. Popular AI platform Chat GPT was criticised earlier this year for letting people recreate their pictures in the style of Japan’s famed Studio Ghibli, with the move sparking a counter-trend where human artists began posting their own art inspired by Ghibli and its legendary creator Hayao Miyazaki.
Cover photo: Reuters
Comments