Kelly Carlin decries a comedy special on YouTube that generated a fake Carlin, saying, ‘No machine will ever replace his genius.
A new artificial intelligence-generated comedy special featuring the voice of George Carlin has been released. This was released over 15 years after the comedian’s death and sparked outrage from Carlin’s daughter.
Artificially-generated fart jokes are not at the top of the list of what the future promises, but here they are.
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Dudesy, a comedy about artificial intelligence (AI), hosts a podcast of the same name with real humans Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen. Dudesy used George Carlin’s voice in a new standup special, and this was not welcomed by the comedian’s daughter.
George Carlin’s daughter lambasts AI-generated video of late comedian: Kelly Carlin decries comedy special on YouTube that generated a fake Carlin, saying ‘no machine will ever replace his genius’
Kelly Carlin, the American radio host and daughter of… https://t.co/e31sOtDLet pic.twitter.com/QYuKwJ7lET
— Manuel Andrés Vélez-Guerrero (@mandresve) January 12, 2024
Dudesy drops the special
Dudesy released the Robo-Carling Special on Tuesday, which the late comedian’s daughter denounced in no uncertain terms.
Additionally, the special was an hour long and was called “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead!”
Kelly Carling lambasted the special as she posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday. According to her, her dad lived his life perfecting his craft with his brain and imagination. She continued that no machine can replace her dad, and these AI-generated products are intelligent attempts to recreate her dad’s mind, which will never exist again.
However, the AI started the special with a disclaimer that it wanted to let you know that what you’re about to hear is not George Carlin. It is his impersonation of George Carlin that was developed in the same way human impressionists would.
Additionally, the AI said it had listened to all of George Carlin’s material and did its best to imitate his voice. George’s voice and attitude as the subject matter it thinks would have interested George were imitated.
Definitely, Carling had a lot of nuance in his comedy, and nuance is something that AI cannot understand. Here’s one of the so-called jokes:
“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, and too subtle to be replicated by a machine. No computer program can tell a fart joke as good as me.’”
AI-generated comedy: the first time?
George Carlin’s AI-generated comedy was not the first time that creators have resorted to using AI to generate false content. However, George Carlin is widely regarded as one of the most influential comedians of all time.
In April 2023, Tom Brady, a former NFL champion, threatened to sue Dudesy creators after they released an AI-generated comedy special. However, the AI-generated comedy was later taken down.
Tom Brady has threatened a lawsuit over a comedy special in which an AI-generated version of the quarterback was giving a crass stand-up routine, according to TMZ https://t.co/OwI4GFCFDi pic.twitter.com/P2XIs3zKX9
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 21, 2023
Significantly, Brady’s attorneys said the comedy special, which was titled It’s Too Easy! A Simulated Hour-Long Comedy Special, “blatantly violated” Brady’s rights.
Also, a documentary on the late celebrity chef and TV host, Anthony Bourdain, sparked backlash from his ex-wife, Ottavia Bourdain, and others in 2021. This was after filmmakers used AI to synthetically generate a voiceover reading of an email by Bourdain himself.
Anthony Bourdain documentary sparks backlash for using AI to fake voice https://t.co/pFcqOiQtsd
— Feedimo News (@feedimo_news) July 19, 2021
The documentary’s director, Morgan Neville, said in an interview with the New Yorker that he contacted a software company. He provided the company with several hours of recordings to generate an AI model of Bourdain’s voice.
After the documentary was released, Ottavia tweeted that he was not the one who said Tony would have been cool with that.
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