Robin Williams’ daughter, Zelda Williams, has asked the public to stop “puppeteering” and sending her AI-generated videos of her late father, who died by suicide in 2014.
“Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” Zelda, 36, posted on her Instagram story on Monday.
“Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t. If you’re just trying to troll me, I’ve seen way worse, I’ll restrict and move on,” she wrote.
American actress, director, producer and writer Zelda Williams arrives at the 21st Annual Unforgettable Gala Asian American Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on December 16, 2023 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency/ABACAPRESS.COM
“But please, if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop. It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want,” the post continued.
It is not the first time Zelda, an actor and filmmaker who directed the 2024 horror comedy Lisa Frankenstein, has spoken out against the creation of AI content featuring her father.
In an Instagram post from 2023, she stated that attempting to recreate his voice and likeness using AI was “personally disturbing,” according to the BBC.
Williams, who was 63 when he died, was famous for starring in films such as Mrs Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting and Good Morning, Vietnam, but Zelda says regurgitated digital content is an insult to his legacy.
“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,” she wrote.
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“TikTok slop” is a term used to describe low-quality content generated using artificial intelligence that is often circulated on social media.
“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,” she continued.
Williams was reportedly struggling with mental health issues around the time of his death.
Zelda’s comments follow a controversy surrounding the introduction of an AI actor called Tilly Norwood.
Norwood is a character created entirely by artificial intelligence, dubbed Hollywood’s first “AI actor” by her creator, producer, and comedian, Eline Van der Velden, who has expressed her intentions to sign Norwood to a talent agency.
Tilly’s introduction has sparked concern in the film industry.
In a statement Tuesday, the Screen Actors Guild said that “creativity is, and should remain, human-centered.”
“To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation,” the guild said.
“It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.”
In a post on Nowrood’s Instagram account, her creators wrote, “to those who have expressed anger over the creation of our AI character, Tilly Norwood: she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work, a piece of art. Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity.
Emily Blunt spoke about Norwood during an episode of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, referring to the idea of an AI actor as “terrifying.”
“Does it disappoint me? I don’t know how to quite answer it, other than to say how terrifying this is,” Blunt said.
— with files from Global News’ Katie Scott
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