With the help of AI, several fans take the liberty of creating videos or images that imagine their favorite stars in hypothetical situations. However, sometimes they don’t realize that their creations might hurt the loved ones of that particular person. One such incident happened recently, where Robin Williams’ daughter, Zelda Williams, urged fans not to send AI-generated videos of her father, and made it clear that this is not what that late actor would have wanted.
The director of Lisa Frankenstein recently took to her Instagram story (via The Independent) to share her disappointment over the misuse of AI recreations that include her father’s works. Zelda noted that people should stop assuming that she would want to see such content or understand it. Consequently, she made it clear that such videos are hurtful to her and everyone who loved the late actor.
She wrote, “To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to ‘this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that’s enough’, just so other people can churn out horrible TikTok slop puppeteering them is maddening. You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of the history of art and music, and then shoving them down someone else’s throat, hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up and like it. Gross.”
The filmmaker concluded by saying that people should stop calling AI the “future” because it merely reprocesses the past for re-consumption. Zelda Williams has always been vocal about how some people are trying to push AI so that they can profit. During the Hollywood actors’ strike in 2023, the director expressed displeasure over those who have been training AI models to recreate personalities who cannot give consent.
Over the years, there have been several debates about whether AI should be given relevance in the entertainment industry. Recently, the Marvel series Secret Invasion used AI to create the intro, and the makers decided to use AI because it aligned with the show’s narrative. However, the decision to use artificial intelligence didn’t fare well with audiences, who condemned the use of AI technology for the opening credits and criticized its low quality. It seems not everything done by AI is useful.
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