Robin Williams’ Daughter Slams AI Recreations of Father: ‘Disturbing’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda recently spoke out against AI recreations of her father that imitate his voice.
On Sunday, she took to her Instagram stories to express her frustration with the technology.
“I am not an impartial voice in SAG’s fight against AI. I’ve witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like dad,” she shared.
The use of AI in the entertainment industry played a large role in the WGA strike and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
“Her comments come on the heels of the Writer Guild of America’s strike against the studios over issues that included the use of AI, among other sticking points. While the WGA has a tentative deal in place, SAG-AFTRA is still currently on strike over the use of AI and other issues,” The Hollywood Reporter said.
According to Zelda, people have already used AI to recreate her father in some way.
“This isn’t theoretical, it is very very real,” she continued. “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. Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into pursuit of performance.”
Many others in the industry feel the same way.
Director Tim Burton said AI is “a robot taking your humanity, your soul.”
“In support of the actors’ strike, John Cusack called AI a ‘criminal enterprise.’ And on Saturday, Tom Hanks warned of an AI video of himself promoting a dental plan,” Entertainment Weekly reported.
Zelda concluded her post by slamming the false recreations that AI generates.
“These recreations are, at 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 said.
Movieguide® previously reported on how AI could impact the entertainment industry:
Director Joe Russo (AVENGERS: ENDGAME, AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR), for example, believes that AI will be able to create feature-length movies within two years. While these movies may not be as entertaining as human-made movies, they would enable new features, like making the viewer a main character.
“At some point, perhaps, you could tell a video-streaming service, ‘Hey, I want a movie starring my photoreal avatar and Marilyn Monroe’s photo real avatar,’” Russo said in an April interview with Collider. “It renders a very competent story with dialogue that mimics your voice… And suddenly now you have a rom-com starring you that’s 90 minutes long. So you can curate your story specifically to you.”
On the other hand, James Cameron (TITANIC, THE TERMINATOR) doesn’t see a future where AI movies are mainstream.
“I just don’t believe that a disembodied mind that’s just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said will ever have something that’s going to move an audience,” he recently told CTV News. “Let’s wait 20 years, and if an AI wins an Oscar for best screenplay, [then] we’ve got to take them seriously.”
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