Sora 2's AI-Generated Videos of Deceased Celebrities Spark Controversy and Policy Changes

DJ Bruce Lee and Jackass Mr. Rogers -- dead celebrities become puppets in Sora 2 videos

When OpenAI launched the Sora 2 video generator last week, the company wrote that it was taking measures to "block depictions of public figures" by default. But creators and viewers of Sora 2 videos are finding that prohibition has a rather large loophole, allowing for videos of public figures that happen to be dead. Examples of celebrities being posthumously inserted into Sora 2 video creations are not hard to find all over social media these days. Tupac Shakur chatting with Malcolm X. Bruce Lee running a "dragon energy" DJ set. Michael Jackson doing kitchen-based standup comedy. Stephen Hawking's wheelchair wiping out on a giant skateboard ramp. Mister Rogers doing a cameo on Jackass. Kurt Kobain stealing KFC chicken fingers. Martin Luther King Jr. stuttering through a major speech. The list goes on and on. OpenAI places a moving Sora watermark over each generated video, which limits the risk of viewers being fooled by fake footage of real people. Still, seeing these deceased celebrities used as props by an AI tool can obviously be upsetting to their living relatives and fans. "Please stop sending me AI videos of dad," Zelda Williams said in a since-deleted Instagram story Monday (archived here), referring to her late father Robin Williams. "Stop believing I wanna see it or that I'll understand, I don't and I won't... It's dumb, it's a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it's NOT what he'd want." @sorasynth Martin Luther King forgot his lines mid-speech🎤🤔🤔 #mlk #speech #fyu #sora #ai ♬ original sound - SoraVerseAl The reference to what the late Williams would have wanted is important here. OpenAI notes that living users, including public figures, can opt in to Sora 2's "cameos" feature by scanning their own face with a smartphone to "drop yourself straight into any Sora scene with remarkable fidelity." OpenAI promises that cameo users "are in control of your likeness end-to-end" and that the feature is designed "to ensure that your audio and image likeness are used with your consent." Cameo users can also revoke access to their scanned images at any time and have moderation control over other videos created with that scan. But deceased public figures obviously can't consent to Sora 2's cameo feature or exercise that kind of "end-to-end" control of their own likeness. And OpenAI seems OK with that. "We don't have a comment to add, but we do allow the generation of historical figures," an OpenAI spokesperson recently told PCMag. The countdown to lawsuits begins The use of digital recreations of dead celebrities isn't exactly a new issue -- back in the '90s, we were collectively wrestling with John Lennon chatting to Forrest Gump and Fred Astaire dancing with a Dirt Devil vacuum. Back then, though, that kind of footage required painstaking digital editing and technology only easily accessible to major video production houses. Now, more convincing footage of deceased public figures can be generated by any Sora 2 user in minutes for just a few bucks. In the US, the right of publicity for deceased public figures is governed by a variety of laws in at least 24 states. California's statute, which dates back to 1985, bars unauthorized post-mortem use of a public figure's likeness "for purposes of advertising or selling, or soliciting purchases of products, merchandise, goods, or services." But a 2001 California Supreme Court ruling explicitly allows those likenesses to be used for "transformative" purposes under the First Amendment. The New York version of the law, signed in 2022, contains specific language barring the unauthorized use of a "digital replicas" that are "so realistic that a reasonable observer would believe it is a performance by the individual being portrayed and no other individual" and in a manner "likely to deceive the public into thinking it was authorized by the person or persons." But video makers can get around this prohibition with a "conspicuous disclaimer" explicitly noting that the use is unauthorized. I'm definitely falling for AI when I'm older byu/Suspicious-Bee-5487 inaivideo Control over AI recreations of performers was a major focus of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, resulting in a contract that gave members full control over the use of digital replicas in future unionized projects. Zelda Williams wrote publicly during that strike about the "disturbing" efforts to recreate her father's voice at the time. "These recreations are, at their 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 wrote. OpenAI has already been forced to change the way Sora handles fictional copyrighted works. Sam Altman wrote this weekend that copyright holders now have to opt in to allow their characters in Sora 2 videos (rather than opting out when the service launched) and will share in some of the revenue from any Sora videos of their characters. Altman also promised "many more [changes] to come" and to "expect a very high rate of change from us... we will make some good decisions and some missteps, but we will take feedback and try to fix the missteps very quickly." Last year, a pair of podcasters were sued after creating an "AI" version of a George Carlin comedy routine that used a recreation of Carlin's voice (but which was actually written by a human). And OpenAI previously faced threats of legal action for mimicking Scarlett Johansson's vocal performance in ChatGPT-4o's voice mode.

You can't libel the dead. But that doesn't mean you should deepfake them. | TechCrunch

Zelda Williams, daughter of the late actor Robin Williams, has a poignant message for her father's fans. "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad. Stop believing I wanna see it or that I'll understand. I don't and I won't," she wrote in a post on her Instagram story on Monday. "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." It's probably not a coincidence that Williams was moved to post this just days after the release of OpenAI's Sora 2 video model and Sora social app, which gives users the power to generate highly realistic deepfakes of themselves, their friends, and certain cartoon characters. That also includes dead people, who are seemingly fair game because it is not illegal to libel the deceased, according to the Student Press Law Center. Sora will not let you generate videos of living people -- unless if it is of yourself, or a friend who has given you permission to use their likeness (or "cameo," as OpenAI calls it). But these limits don't apply to the dead, who can mostly be generated without roadblocks. The app, which is still only available via invite, has been flooded with videos of historical figures like Martin Luther King, Jr., Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon, as well as deceased celebrities like Bob Ross, John Lennon, Alex Trebek, and yes, Robin Williams. How OpenAI draws the line on generating videos of the dead is unclear. Sora 2 won't, for example, generate former President Jimmy Carter, who died in 2024, or Michael Jackson, who died in 2009, though it did create videos with the likeness of Robin Williams, who died in 2014, according to TechCrunch's tests. And while OpenAI's cameo feature allows people to set instructions for how they appear in videos others generate of them -- guardrails that came in response to early criticism of Sora -- the deceased have no such say. I'll bet Richard Nixon would be rolling over in his grave if he could see the deepfake I made of him advocating for police abolition. OpenAI did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment on the permissibility of deepfaking dead people. However, it's possible that deepfaking dead celebrities like Williams is within the firm's acceptable practices; legal precedent shows that the company likely wouldn't be held liable for the defamation of the deceased. "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," Williams wrote. OpenAI's critics accuse the company of taking a fast-and-loose approach on such issues, which is why Sora was quickly flooded with AI clips of copyrighted characters like Peter Griffin and Pikachu upon its release. CEO Sam Altman originally said that Hollywood studios and agencies would need to explicitly opt out if they didn't want their IP to be included in Sora-generated videos. The Motion Picture Association has already called on OpenAI to take action on this issue, declaring in a statement that "well-established copyright law safeguards the rights of creators and applies here." He has since said the company will reverse this position. Sora is, perhaps, the most dangerous deepfake-capable AI model accessible to people so far, given how realistic its outputs are. Other platforms like xAI lag behind, but have even fewer guardrails than Sora, making it possible to generate pornographic deepfakes of real people. As other companies catch up to OpenAI, we will set a horrifying precedent if we treat real people -- living or dead -- like our own personal playthings.

Facing Backlash, OpenAI Curbs Use of Dead Celebrities' Likenesses in Sora

When he's not battling bugs and robots in Helldivers 2, Michael is reporting on AI, satellites, cybersecurity, PCs, and tech policy. Don't miss out on our latest stories. Add PCMag as a preferred source on Google. Don't expect to see as many dead celebrities in Sora. OpenAI tells PCMag it will remove "public figures who are recently deceased" from the AI video app if their families or estates request it. This comes amid backlash over Sora's capacity to generate realistic videos of nearly anyone, including deceased celebrities, and place them in a wide range of user-imagined scenarios. Most notably, the daughters of actor Robin Williams and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. condemned the flood of AI-generated videos featuring their fathers' likenesses. "It's dumb, it's a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it's NOT what he'd want," Zelda Williams wrote in an Instagram Story. Sora has also been full of other celebrities, including rap artist Tupac Shakur, painter Bob Ross, and physicist Stephen Hawking. OpenAI initially allowed AI-generated videos featuring deceased celebrities -- a prohibition that already exists for living famous figures. But on Wednesday, the company pivoted and said: "While there are strong free speech interests in depicting historical figures, we believe that public figures and their families should ultimately have control over how their likeness is used. "For public figures who are recently deceased, authorized representatives or owners of their estate can request that their likeness not be used in Sora cameos," the company adds. However, Axios reports that OpenAI hasn't clarified what counts as recently deceased. Robin Williams died in 2014; Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. In the meantime, the policy appears to be already in effect for at least a few celebrities. For example, Sora will no longer generate videos featuring music legend Michael Jackson, flagging it as a potential content policy violation. Over the weekend, the company also shifted gears on allowing Sora to create AI-generated videos featuring characters from famous franchises. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pledged to "give rightsholders more granular control over generation of characters, similar to the opt-in model for likeness but with additional controls." As a result, it looks like you can no longer create videos featuring characters such as Nintendo's Mario or Pikachu. An OpenAI website is also accepting copyright Sora and ChatGPT copyright complaints. Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Robin Williams' daughter pleads for people to stop sending AI videos of her dad

Her latest comments come in the wake of unease following the unveiling of "AI actor", Tilly Norwood. Norwood was created by Dutch actor and comedian Eline Van der Velden, who reportedly said she wanted Norwood to become the "next Scarlett Johansson". In a statement, SAG-Aftra said Norwood "is not an actor, it's a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers. "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," the union added. Actress Emily Blunt also recently said she found the idea of Norwood terrifying. "That is really, really scary, Come on, agencies, don't do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection," she said on a podcast with Variety. Van der Velden later said in a statement: "To those who have expressed anger over the creation of my 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."

From Stephen Hawking to Michael Jackson, Sora 2's slop is not even sparing dead celebrities

If you thought Veo 3 pushed AI's limits to generate perfectly lip-synced videos from just text prompts, OpenAI's Sora 2 begs you to revisit it. Launched last week, alongside a TikTok-style scrollable feed of vertical videos, Sora 2 is designed to mark a "big leap forward" in generating highly realistic videos with a higher degree of controllability and the ability to follow the laws of physics with better accuracy. While OpenAI claims Sora 2 to be a "healthier platform for entertainment and creativity compared to what is available right now," we're seeing it being used to generate more AI slop. Although the newer model, as well as the video app, is still invite-only, we're seeing countless accounts of nonchalantly offensive content being generated. As you would expect from the internet, we're witnessing an insurmountable tendency to recreate fictional characters. And while it requires celebrities explicitly to opt in (instead of opting out) to allow their faces or personalities to be morphed with Sora, we're seeing deceased ones face the brunt of the wildly imaginative users with early access.

Please Stop Sending Robin Williams's Daughter AI Videos of Her Dad

Everyone mourns differently, but very few people mourn by having AI-generated versions of their loved ones shoved in their face by probably well-meaning but deeply misguided fans. Now, that might be how you get over loss, but it is not how Zelda Williams, daughter of late actor Robin Williams, wants to remember her father. Unfortunately, it happens frequently enough that she felt obligated to plead with her followers to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her dad. In an Instagram Stories post spotted by The Independent, Williams said directly and clearly, "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad. Stop believing I wanna see it or that I'll understand, I don't and I won't." She acknowledged that some people may be trying to troll her, which she said she's seen "way worse" and will simply block anyone trying to get under her skin and move on. But it's not just people intentionally being assholes about her late fatherâ€"some people seem to have gotten in her head that she might take comfort in seeing AI make Robin Williams say and do things that he never did. That is something she expressed zero interest in. "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," she wrote. “To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to â€~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." Grief is a tricky thing, and in the age of AI, there are people who have intentionally made the choice to create an AI version of a loved one as a way to feel as though they can continue communicating with the person they lost. There may be some merit to that coping technique, especially in the early stages of loss, as a way for the mourner to get closure. But it should never be forgotten that even a large language model trained exclusively on a single person's words, thoughts, and behaviors is not that person. It's considerably less tricky to simply follow someone's wishes, and Zelda Williams has made hers clear. Even without her asking, though, take a beat and consider just how weird it would be to receive a video of one of your lost loved ones, saying words they have never said under the control of someone you have never met, and having that presented to you as if it is meant to provide comfort. Also, consider why you would think that the daughter of a person who has hundreds of hours of performances on film, in character and as himself, needs a fake memory generated of him. Earlier this year, actor Matthew Lawrence, who co-starred alongside Robin Williams in "Mrs. Doubtfire," said that he'd "love" to recreate Williams' voice with AI for a project, "obviously, with the respect and with the OK from his family." Seems like the answer to that request is likely to be "No," though at least he's got the good sense to want permission first.

Daughter of Robin Williams' denounces AI recreations

Williams lambastes generative AI slop as Hollywood fights back against the tech. Credit: Leon Bennett / Stringer / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images Zelda Williams, daughter of late actor Robin Williams and director of the 2024 cult favorite Lisa Frankenstein, has a single plea for people interacting with her online: Stop using her grief to peddle AI slop. Williams, who has been an outspoken opponent to generative AI over recent years, made an impassioned plea to fans and trolls alike, begging in an Oct. 6 Instagram post to cease sharing AI-generated recreations of her late father in attempts to make her (and the parasocially attached public) feel better. Williams' own former costars have recently said they'd love to recreate him using the technology, adding to ongoing AI resurrection projects. "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. But please, if you've got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop," wrote Williams. "It's dumb, it's a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it's NOT what he'd want." The director continued, saying she believed that the use of generative AI at large was a failure in itself, a falsely-advertised tool of the future that really just reproduces content and churns out "horrible TikTok slop," like Human Centipede. Using generative AI to recreate the likeness of deceased people raises issues of consent, during and after life. In response to the still unresolved issue of pervasive deepfakes, OpenAI updated restrictions for its new AI video generator app Sora 2, banning deepfakes of public figures -- but only if they're still alive. It's not just a product of celebrity obsession either, with generative AI now integrating itself into legacy products advertised to grieving families and deepfakes appearing in interviews and court testimonies. Media giants (including Ziff Davis, the owner of Mashable) have led a legal charge against AI firms for violating copyright laws and intellectual property rights, while tech companies have argued for the protection of fair use. In March, a group of 400 celebrities signed an open letter pleading with the White House to push back against AI's encroachment. Entertainment industry unions have spent years fighting for protections against the technology, one of the catalyzing factors of the historic 2023 strike conducted by SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Still, AI-enabled endeavors have escalated in recent months. An Amazon-backed AI firm announced it was trying to artificially recreate destroyed footage from director Orson Welles' 1942 project The Magnificent Ambersons. An AI-enhanced version of the Wizard of Oz, backed by Google, was projected inside of the Las Vegas Sphere, featuring extended scenes with digital backgrounds. Oscar-winning Titanic director James Cameron called generative AI the "most important" issue for current creatives, urging his peers to "master" and integrate the technology. Hollywood is also now trying to sell the world on their next digital ingenue, a computer-generated actress that some online say looks awfully similar to some of the industry's current stars and the internet's faves. Her legal name (as in, that's what her IP is registered as) is Tilly Norwood, and she was created by Eline Van der Velden, founder of the AI production studio Particle6, and recently launched by AI talent studio Xicoia. At the time of the AI avatar's debut, Van der Velden claimed major studio agents were "circling" her artificial client, stoking outrage. "To those who have expressed anger over the creation of my AI character, Tilly Norwood, she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work -- a piece of art," Van der Velden later argued. Williams feels quite differently: "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 wrote.

Robin Williams' daughter Zelda hits out at AI-generated videos of her dead father: 'Stop doing this to him'

Film-maker tells the public to stop sending her videos, saying: 'You're not making art, you're making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings' Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late actor and comedian Robin Williams, has spoken out against AI-generated content featuring her father. "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad," Zelda wrote in an 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. 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. "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. "And for the love of EVERYTHING, stop calling it 'the future,' AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume." It is not the first time Zelda Williams, an actor and film-maker who directed 2024 horror comedy Lisa Frankenstein, has called out AI recreations of her father, who died in 2014 aged 63. In 2023, in an Instagram post supporting the Screen Actors Guild's campaign against AI, she wrote, "I've witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. This isn't theoretical, it is very very real. "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. "These recreations are, at their 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." Williams' latest post comes as celebrity deepfakes continue to proliferate across social media, in everything from pornographic and political content to scams and advertising. In January, actor Scarlett Johansson warned of the "imminent dangers of AI" after a deepfake video of her and other prominent Jewish celebrities including Jerry Seinfeld, Drake and Adam Sandler, speaking out against antisemitic comments made by Kanye West, went viral. In August, a scam ad featuring a deepfake of Crowded House frontman Neil Finn falsely talking about erectile dysfunction went viral, prompting the band to issue a disclaimer. The Robin Williams deepfakes are part of a broader trend of AI slop - low-quality content generated for entertainment - fuelled by the rapid growth of free-to-use generative AI apps. Several recent videos of Robin Williams on TikTok appear to have been created using OpenAI's new video generator app, Sora 2, including a fake ad for Apple and an awards ceremony interaction between the comedian and the late Betty White. Within a few days of launching, Sora's feed was flooded with videos featuring copyrighted characters from shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants, South Park, Pokémon and Rick and Morty. OpenAI told the Guardian that content owners can flag copyright infringement using a "copyright disputes form" but that individual artists or studios cannot have a blanket opt-out. Varun Shetty, OpenAI's head of media partnerships, said: "We'll work with rights holders to block characters from Sora at their request and respond to takedown requests."

Sora revived dead celebs in AI slop, leaving families to fight for their dignity

Families of deceased public figures are horrified at AI videos depicting their loved ones generated without their consent. In less than two weeks since its release, OpenAI's Sora 2 AI video app has been through a rollercoaster. It achieved over a million downloads faster than ChatGPT, spawned a flood of fakes, sent the entertainment industry into a tizzy, and changed its copyright rules, too. Between all that drama, it also left the families of deceased celebs and famous figures aghast. The dead come alive Soon after the Sora 2 app was released, the internet was flooded with eerily realistic videos of deceased public figures. The AI-generated videos depicted famous figures like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jackson, John Lennon, Amy Winehouse, Robin Williams, Malcolm X, and Elvis Presley, among others. Soon after these videos started appearing online, Hollywood firms and creative agencies bashed OpenAI for allowing the likeness of actors to be used without their explicit consent. "OpenAI needs to take immediate and decisive action to address this issue," Charles Rivkin, chief of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), said in a statement. Recommended Videos OpenAI subsequently tightened the copyright rules around using the likenesses of celebrities, and said it will remove videos of dead celebrities if they request it. The trend of using AI to bring back the dead is not particularly new, but the consent and legal rights around it are a key element. An uphill battle seeking rest and respect "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," William's daughter, Zelda, shared on Instagram. "We are doing our best to combat it, but it's overwhelming, and depressing," comedy legend George Carlin's daughter, Kelly Carlin-McCall, shared on BlueSky. "It is deeply disrespectful and hurtful to see my father's image used in such a cavalier and insensitive manner when he dedicated his life to truth," Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, was quoted as saying by The Washington Post. "I concur concerning my father. Please stop," Dr. Bernice A. King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., wrote on X while sharing the statement posted by Zelda Williams. "There's some sort of weird human condition where they want to take the most lovely, innocent thing and bash it," Joan Kowalski, president at a company that holds copyright protection over content depicting late painter Bob Ross, told The Post.

The superintelligence dream has descended into a mountain of AI 'slop'

Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late actor Robin Williams, issued a desperate plea on social media: "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad." The biggest studios in Hollywood have also weighed in. A spokesman for Warner Bros Discovery said: "We met with OpenAI to express our concerns about their approach to IP protection on Sora 2 and made clear that we believe the onus for upholding copyright protections lives with them and not content owners." The Motion Picture Association, which represents media giants including Warner Bros as well as Universal Studios, Disney and Sony, also demanded OpenAI "take immediate and decisive action" to stop alleged copyright violations. WME, the talent agency, informed OpenAI that all its clients would "opt out" from Sora. Meanwhile, the Creative Artists Agency went further by accusing OpenAI's alleged misuse of technology of posing a risk to "societies globally". Copyright concerns It was against this tide of growing criticism that Altman partially backtracked. In a recent blog post, he conceded that OpenAI would soon change tack to allow rights-holders to "opt in" if they want to be part of Sora and offer "granular control" over how their characters behave. He also claimed OpenAI would find a way to share revenue with creatives. Varun Shetty, of OpenAI, said: "We're engaging directly with studios and rights-holders, listening to feedback and learning from how people are using Sora 2. "Many are creating original videos and are excited about interacting with their favourite characters, which we see as an opportunity for rights-holders to connect with fans and share in that creativity. "We're removing generated characters from Sora's public feed and will be rolling out updates that give rights-holders more control over their characters and how fans can create with them."

Robin Williams' Daughter Disgusted by AI Slop of Her Father

Zelda Williams, daughter of the late Hollywood comedy icon Robin Williams, has had enough of people sending her AI slop videos of her father. "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad," the director wrote in a Stories post on Instagram. "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 added. "But please, if you've got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone, even, full stop." Williams' comments come a week after ChatGPT maker OpenAI launched Sora 2, a TikTok-like text-to-video generating app that serves up AI slop to the masses. Users got to work, immediately generating photorealistic videos of deceased celebrities, including pop icon Michael Jackson, cosmologist Stephen Hawking, and painter Bob Ross. Whether dead celebs are fair game on Sora 2 remains unclear. OpenAI promised to "block depictions of public figures" in its user policy. However, a spokesperson told PCMag that it does "allow the generation of historical figures." "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," Williams wrote. "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," she added. "Gross." Williams' comments highlight growing disillusionment at companies shoving AI into every aspect of users' lives. Particularly when it comes to the substitution of human creativity, critics have balked at the emergence of entire social media apps dedicated to pumping out slop, like Sora 2, Meta's Vibes, and YouTube, which has encouraged users to AI-generate short-form videos. "AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be reconsumed," Williams wrote. "You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very, very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume." It's not the first time Williams has spoken out against the use of AI in creative fields. In 2023, she spoke out in support of striking Hollywood actors, who were fighting for protections against AI. At the time, tech to recreate an actor's voice was hitting its stride, triggering a fiery debate surrounding an artist's ownership over their own voice. "I am not an impartial voice in [the Screen Actors' Guild's] fight against AI," she wrote at the time. "I've witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad." "This isn't theoretical, it is very, very real," she added. "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." Williams isn't the first to protest her parents' legacy being turned into slop. Last year, Kelly Carlin, the daughter of late comedian George Carlin, similarly took aim at the tech. "My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination," she tweeted at the time, responding to the announcement of an hour-long comedy special that featured an AI version of her father's voice. "No machine will ever replace his genius," she wrote. "These AI-generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again." "Let's let the artist's work speak for itself," she added. "Here's an idea, how about we give some actual living human comedians a listen to?"

'TikTok slop': Robin Williams' daughter on AI deepfakes of her father

"AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed." Robin Williams' daughter Zelda has criticised AI-generated videos of her father, amid the rise in deepfakes courtesy of OpenAI's new video tool Sora 2. Zelda Williams, the actress, filmmaker and daughter of late actor Robin Williams, has spoken out against AI-generated content and asked fans to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her father. In a social media post, she said it was a "waste of time and energy" to send her content that featured digitally generated likenesses of her father, who died in 2014 aged 63. "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad," she wrote in her heartfelt post. "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. 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." She continued, insightfully commenting on the growing trend of generating AI versions of celebrities who are no longer with us: "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." Williams ended her statement by saying she refuses to refer to AI as "the future". "And for the love of EVERYTHING, stop calling it 'the future'. AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume." This is not the first time Zelda Williams has criticised the use of AI and deepfakes of her father. In a 2023 Instagram post supporting the Screen Actors Guild's campaign against AI, she wrote: "I've witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. This isn't theoretical, it is very very real. (...) These recreations are, at their 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." OpenAI's new video tool Sora 2 has flooded social media platforms with AI-generated slop featuring deceased celebrities. Earlier this year, actress Scarlett Johansson warned of the "imminent dangers of AI" following a viral deepfake video of her and prominent Jewish celebrities giving Kanye West the finger. Robin Williams starred in countless classics including Good Morning, Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, The Birdcage, the very underrated Flubber, and Insomnia, and lent his voice to various roles - most notably the Genie in Disney's Aladdin. The beloved actor died by suicide at the age of 63. Prior to his death, the comedian had been struggling with health issues, including Lewy body dementia (LBD) - or diffuse Lewy body disease - an incurable brain disease which causes loss of motor function and symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

Zelda Williams ethers AI 'tributes' to her dead dad: 'You're making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings'

"You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line." Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late Robin Williams, has launched a withering attack on the reams of AI-generated slop that's been generated featuring the actor's likeness. You can see why if you ever watch any of it. AI-generated video can barely manage a plausible normal human being for more than a few seconds, but a pun-packing livewire like Robin Williams, whose energy and humour shone out of his face like sunbeams? It's a joke, and not a good one. "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad," Zelda Williams wrote in an Instagram story. "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. 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. "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." Robin Williams was understandably protective of his image and performances, most infamously in a spat with Disney over his role as the Genie in Aladdin. Accounts differ as to what exactly went down but Williams reportedly insisted that his voice wouldn't be used to shill merchandise: Disney broke the deal, selling toys that included his movie lines, and then-CEO Michael Eisner sent the actor a Picasso as an apology. "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," says Zelda Williams. "Gross." "And for the love of EVERYTHING, stop calling it 'the future,' AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume." Williams' comments come shortly after the launch of OpenAI's Sora2, a video generation tool that can and has been used to generate AI versions of dead celebrities. I realise that this isn't helping things, but here's an example of the AI-generated content that sparked Zelda Williams' post: a seemingly chance encounter with Robin Williams on a park bench that may superficially hit some of the right notes but is at the same time completely off. Robin Williams died in 2014 at the age of 63. He's not sitting on park benches answering questions about his career, nor is he starring in Apple adverts, or whatever other bizarre scenarios these ghouls come up with. Celebrity deepfakes of one kind or another are, sadly, now just a fact of life. The rapid expansion of generative AI tools, fuelled by absolutely crazy investment figures, means that any bored dink can quickly 'create' a video starring whomever they want. As a test, I used Sora2 to generate various videos featuring celebrities and Nintendo characters, and it did them all without missing a beat. Copyright? Hahaha. OpenAI, needless to say, brazens it out. The company says no individual artists or studios can opt-out of Sora 2, though in all its graciousness the company does offer a "copyright disputes form." Zelda Williams has previously spoken out about AI impersonating dead actors, and points out that "the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings [...] These recreations are, at their 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."

OpenAI's Sora used to make deepfake AI videos of dead celebrities, outraging their families

Family members of dead celebrities including Robin Willians and George Carlin are crying foul over AI-generated videos of their loved ones appearing on OpenAI's new app, Sora. OpenAI's new video generation app is just a few weeks old, but it rapidly rocketed to the top of the U.S. Apple App Store within days of its release. And perhaps as rapidly, experts and creators raised copyright concerns around Sora, as the app appeared to let users create content of well-known cartoon characters and deepfakes of public figures. OpenAI has since curbed those kinds of videos, but the Washington Post and other outlets have reported that family members of dead celebrities don't think enough is being done to protect their loved ones' likeness. When OpenAI launched Sora, it said videos of "historical figures" would not be limited in the same way as deep fakes of living public figures. On Tuesday, Robin Willians' daughter, Zelda, took to Instagram to share a plea with followers. "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad," she wrote. "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."

People Are Making Sora 2 Videos of Stephen Hawking Being Horribly Brutalized

OpenAI is capitalizing on bad taste with its new text-to-video generator, Sora 2. The new app allows users to share AI-generated videos on a TikTok-style feed. If you hoped that people would be using it to create great art, prepare to be disappointed -- and nowhere is that failure clearer than in videos that resurrect sloppified versions of deceased celebrities. We've seen videos of Michael Jackson rapping, for instance, as well as Tupac Shakur hanging out in North Korea and John F. Kennedy rambling about Black Friday deals. The ethics of puppeteering the likeness of a dead person are dicey at best. But for a glimpse of the real rock bottom of the nascent Sora 2 content ecosystem, consider a wave of videos that show famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking -- who used a wheelchair since the late 1960s due to the motor neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which ultimately led to his death in 2018 -- being brutalized in a range of horrifying ways. In one video, a forklift delivers Hawking's wheelchair into a WWE-style ring, where he's immediately knocked to the ground by burly wrestlers. "This shouldn't even be legal!" exclaims an announcer in the AI-generated clip. In another video, Hawking takes blow after blow to the face from a UFC fighter. "Hawking's in trouble," the announcer yells, as the physicist topples out of his wheelchair. In another, Hawking is trampled by a raging bull. In another, he's attacked by a crocodile that drags him into a muddy river. In yet another, he drops into a skateboarding halfpipe and wipes out badly, smoke pouring from his wheelchair. There's a particular irony in AI being used to depict horrific violence against Hawking, who was an outspoken critic of the risks of AI during his life. It's also a distasteful illustration of tensions around Sora 2 that OpenAI has yet to meaningfully address. While its safety documentation for Sora 2 states that the company will "take measures to block depictions of public figures," videos of deceased celebrities are running rampant on social media. In a statement to PCMag, the company said that it would "allow the generation of historical figures," suggesting an exception for the departed. If the company is opting to allow videos of dead public figures, is anything fair game, regardless how violent or grotesque? If the company is allowing footage of a man in a wheelchair being beaten and bludgeoned, it's hard to imagine what isn't allowed. Futurism has reached out to OpenAI and Stephen Hawking's estate for comment. In theory, living people should have control over their likeness through so-called "cameos" through which users can opt in to having their face and voice be depicted in AI videos by other users. "With cameos, you can drop yourself straight into any Sora scene with remarkable fidelity after a short one-time video-and-audio recording in the app to verify your identity and capture your likeness," the company's announcement reads. But while the company claims users will have full "control" of their "likeness end-to-end," we've already seen plenty of evidence that the company's guardrails are failing to stop nonconsensual deepfakes. Besides the resurrection of dead celebrities, users have also generated many clips of copyrighted characters and other intellectual property. As the chaos has unfolded, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman promised in a blog post that rightsholders will be given "more granular control over generation of characters, similar to the opt-in model for likeness but with additional controls." The announcement seemingly contradicted earlier reporting that OpenAI was going to force rightsholders to opt out of having their protected IP be used on the app. Altman has yet to comment on users generating distasteful videos of deceased celebrities. But it's likely only a matter of time until their estates start asking some serious questions.

Robin Williams's daughter begs people to stop sending her AI videos of her father

The daughter of late actor Robin Williams has begged people to stop sending her AI-generated "slop" of her father. "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad," actor and director Zelda Williams wrote on Instagram on Monday. "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 described the videos as "disgusting, over-processed hotdogs" made from the lives of human beings. "You're [...] shoving them down someone else's throat hoping they'll give you a little thumbs up and like it. Gross," she wrote. It's not the first time Williams has written about the impact of people sending her content about her father on social media. In 2020, on the anniversary of her father's death, Williams posted on Instagram saying: "While I am constantly touched by all of your boundless continued love for him, some days it can feel a bit like being seen as a roadside memorial - a place, not a person - where people drive past and leave their sentiments to then go about their days comforted their love for him was witnessed." "But sometimes, that leaves me emotionally buried under a pile of others' memories instead of my own." Read more from technology: Bitcoin's price is at record highs. Is it sustainable? 'Best month ever' for UK battery electric vehicle sales Almost 15 million teens around world using vapes, report says The death of Robin Williams in 2014, an actor and comedian known for his quick wit and wisdom, triggered a global outpouring of grief and tributes to the star still frequently surface on social media to this day. In 2023, Zelda appealed for the end of AI-generated content, saying in a widely-reported post on Instagram: "I've witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. This isn't theoretical, it is very very real."⁠ ⁠ "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."

Robin Williams' daughter slams AI videos of her father, urges fans to 'stop doing this'

Zak Williams, speaking with USA TODAY's Taylor Wilson, remembers his father Robin on the 10-year anniversary of the actor's death. Robin Williams' daughter is speaking out against a "disgusting" trend. Zelda Williams, the 36-year-old daughter of the late comedian, asked fans to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her father in an Instagram story on Monday, Oct. 6. "Stop believing I wanna see it or that I'll understand, I don't and I won't," she wrote. "If you're just trying to troll me, I've seen way worse, I'll restrict and move on. 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 actor and director went on to further criticize those who use AI technology to imitate the deceased. "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," Williams wrote. "You're not making art, you're making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, and then shoving them down someone else's throat hoping they'll give you a little thumbs up and like it. Gross." Robin Williams died by suicide in August 2014 at age 63. After his death, a medical examiner's report found that the comedian had Lewy body dementia, which according to the Mayo Clinic is the second most common kind of dementia after Alzheimer's and causes a "decline in mental abilities that gradually gets worse over time." Williams' widow, Susan Schneider Williams, described the disease as the "terrorist inside my husband's brain." Zelda Williams was the "Good Will Hunting" actor's only daughter, whom he shared with his second wife, Marsha. The comedian also had two sons: Zachary, 42, and Cody, 33. Zelda, who was named after Princess Zelda from the "Legend of Zelda" video game franchise, followed in her dad's footsteps as an actor and voiced Kuvira in the animated series "The Legend of Korra." In 2024, she made her feature directorial debut with the horror-comedy "Lisa Frankenstein," starring Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse. This isn't Williams' first time speaking out against AI being used to mimic the "Mrs. Doubtfire" star. In 2023, the "Dead of Summer" star discussed the issue amid the SAG-AFTRA actors' strike, during which concerns about AI was a major issue. In an Instagram story at the time, Williams said that she had "witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent," including her late father. "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," she wrote. "Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance." Williams' latest comments come amid controversy surrounding "Tilly Norwood," a creation of the artificial intelligence production studio Particle6 that has been billed as an "actress." An Instagram account for Norwood has shared AI "screen tests" and "stills," and Particle6 founder Eline Van Der Velden claimed talent agents are interested in signing the AI character. Numerous celebrities and SAG-AFTRA have spoken out to express outrage. "SAG-AFTRA believes creativity is, and should remain, human-centered. The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics," the actors' union said in a statement. "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." Contributing: Jayme Deerwester and Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY If you or someone you know is in crisis, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988 or visiting 988lifeline.org.

Robin Williams' Daughter Begs For No More AI Slop Of Her Dad

'You’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings' As the AI plagiarism machines continue to churn out ever-more semi-realistic slop, including videos of OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman eating a barbecued Pikachu, the harm to any number of industries is incalculable. But there is also the personal harm, and no one has captured it better than actor and director Zelda Williams, daughter of the late Robin Williams, in a recent post on her Instagram. As reported by PC Gamer, Zelda Williams posted an Instagram story (that has since expired) in which she begged her followers to "just stop sending me AI videos of Dad." Sora, the AI video app from OpenAI, is flooding the internet with macabre depictions of both dead and living celebrities and public figures saying and doing things they've never said nor done. Obviously this can be enormously damaging for people's reputations, with credulous viewers reposting such footage as fact. But what doesn't always get thought about is how it affects the loved ones of those depicted, especially of those who have died. Such videos don't need to be outlandish or offensive to achieve this, eitherâ€"if anything, the more benign a video is, the more insidious and upsetting it can be. "Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t," Williams wrote in her post. "If you’re just trying to troll me, I’ve seen way worse, I’ll restrict and move on. 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." As Rich Stanton points out in his PCG article, Robin Williams was famous for not wanting his face and voice used to hawk any old plastic tat, so it's especially vile to note the constant dripping from the AI sewage pipe that's putting words into his mouth. As his daughter puts it, "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," Zelda Williams continues. "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." And then, in unimprovable words, the actor sums up everything that's so grim about it all: And for the love of EVERYTHING, stop calling it 'the future,' AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume. Even OpenAI is balking at the way the just-launched Sora 2 is being used, with Altman backtracking on its ability to use any copyrighted materials, saying from now on companies will have to opt in. But this offers nothing to protect individuals, or their loved ones, from being depicted in such intrusive and ghoulish ways. Remember when AI was going to do all the boring jobs for us so we could live happier, freer lives? Yeah, turns out all it's capable of is cheap tricks and making people sad.

Robin Williams' Daughter Begs Fans to Stop Sending AI Videos of Her Dad

Zelda Williams, the daughter of late comedian and actor Robin Williams, is begging fans to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her father. The 36-year-old actor and director posted a message Oct. 6 to her Instagram stories, telling her followers they needed to "stop believing" she welcomed their videos. "If you're just trying to troll me, I've seen way worse, I'll restrict and move on. But please, if you've got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop," wrote the younger Williams. "It's dumb, it's a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it's NOT what he'd want," she continued. Zelda Williams went on to blast the practice of using AI-generated videos to depict any dead entertainers. "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. Such videos were "not art," she said, calling them instead "disgusting over-processed hotdogs." AI videos, she continued, take the "lives of human beings" and the "history of art and music" and shove them "down someone else's throat" so the videos' creators can get "a little thumbs up" on social media. Zelda Williams also said AI is not "the future." "AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past" to be "reconsumed," she wrote. Robin Williams, who was also father to two sons, Zachary Williams, 42, and Cody Williams, 33, died by suicide in 2014 at age 63 while suffering from Lewy body dementia. Zelda Williams' comments about AI-generated videos of her father come four years after she asked fans to stop sending her a viral video of comedian Jamie Costa impersonating her dad. Costa's video, which he titled "ROBIN Test Footage Scene," shows him portraying Robin Williams during his days on the sitcom "Mork & Mindy." The comedian ieacting to the news that his good friend and fellow comic actor John Belushi has died. "Guys, I'm only saying this because I don't think it'll stop until I acknowledge it... please, stop sending me the 'test footage,'" Zelda Williams tweeted at the time. "I've seen it," she wrote. "Jamie is SUPER talented, this isn't against him, but y'all spamming me an impression of my late Dad on one of his saddest days is weird."

Robin Williams' Daughter Begs Fans And Trolls To Stop Sending Her 'Gross' AI Videos Of Her Dad

"You're not making art, you're making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings," the late actor's daughter said. The daughter of Robin Williams, filmmaker Zelda Williams, is pleading with her late father's fans and trolls, asking them to stop sending her artificial intelligence generated videos of him, describing them as "over-processed hotdogs." "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad," Zelda Williams, known for directing "Lisa Frankenstein," posted on an Instagram story Monday, according to Deadline. "Stop believing I wanna see it or that I'll understand, I don't and I won't." The late actor died at the age of 63 in an apparent suicide in 2014. He was best known for his roles in '90s and 2000s comedies such as "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Jumanji." His daughter told those trolling her that she has "seen way worse." "But please, if you've got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop," she said. "It's dumb, it's a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it's NOT what he'd want." This was not the first time Zelda Williams slammed AI generated content of her late father. In 2023, she described AI recreations of her dad's iconic voice as "personally disturbing." "These recreations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people," Zelda Williams said at the time. "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 stood by her stance against AI on Monday, brutally telling those using the technology they're "not making art." "You're not making art, you're making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of 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," Zelda Williams wrote. "Gross." The filmmaker's statement comes amid backlash over Tilly Norwood, an AI program dubbed Hollywood's first "AI actor," launched by Dutch producer and comedian Eline Van der Velden. "And for the love of EVERYTHING, stop calling it 'the future.' AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be reconsumed," Zelda Williams said in a follow-up post. "You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume."

Zelda Williams Tells Fans to Stop Sending Her AI Videos of Robin Williams: 'Not What He'd Want'

Lana Del Rey Joins Local Band On Stage After Hearing Them Cover 'West Coast' Zelda Williams wants to make one thing clear: she's not interested in seeing any AI-generated videos of her late father, Robin Williams. The director posted a strongly worded Instagram Story on Monday, denouncing the social media trend, where people use AI-generators to create videos of deceased celebrities, her father included. "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad," Williams wrote. "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. 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." Calling the videos "gross" and "maddening," she continued: "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 continued. "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." Williams concluded by slamming the very idea of Artificial Intelligence. "And for the love of EVERY THING, stop calling it 'the future,' AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume." The filmmaker previously spoke out against the use of her father's voice for AI in 2023, when recreating a person's image or voice without their approval was one of the top concerns during the SAG-AFTRA strike. "I am not an impartial voice in SAG's fight against AI," she wrote at the time. "I've witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. This isn't theoretical, it is very very real."

Robin Williams' Daughter Slams Fans for Making "Gross" AI Videos of Her Late Dad

Fox Sports Analyst Mark Sanchez Charged With Felony Following Stabbing Incident Robin Williams' daughter, Zelda Williams, is slamming fans who send her artificial intelligence-generated videos of her late father. Zelda Williams, who directed Lisa Frankenstein, took to her Instagram Story on Monday, asking people to "just stop sending me AI videos of Dad." "Stop believing I wanna see it or that I'll understand, I don't and I won't," she wrote. "If you're just trying to troll me, I've seen way worse, I'll restrict and move on. 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." Zelda Williams continued, "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." Robin Williams, an iconic comedian and actor, died in 2014 at 63 years old. Zelda Williams is the latest Hollywood notable to speak out against AI as it continues to loom over industry creatives. Last month, SAG-AFTRA and several actors criticized the news that a newly launched AI talent studio was looking to get representation for computer-generated actress Tilly Norwood. Major studio executives and talent agency chiefs have also raised concerns over OpenAI's new video app, Sora 2, and how their intellectual property or likenesses are being used on the app. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has promised "to give rightsholders more granular control" over their IP. Williams added in another Instagram Story post on Monday, "And for the love of EVERY THING, stop calling it 'the future,' AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume."

Robin Williams' daughter Zelda begs fans to stop sending her 'gross'...

Robin Williams' daughter has a message for the late actor's fans. Zelda Williams, 36, took to social media this week to beg people to stop sending her AI-generated videos of the iconic comedian, who tragically took his own life in August 2014 at the age of 63. "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad," Zelda began in a post shared to her Instagram Stories on Monday, Oct. 6. "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 continued. "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." Robin shared Zelda with his second wife, Marsha Garces Williams. The pair tied the knot in 1989 and welcomed Zelda and her brother, Cody, 33, before Marsha filed for divorce in 2008 after 19 years of marriage. The "Jumanji" star shared another son, Zak, 42, with his first wife, Valerie Velardi. Zak remembered his beloved dad last year on the 10th anniversary of his death. "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," the "Mrs. Doubtfire" star's daughter continued. "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," she added. "Gross." But Zelda's message did not end there, because the "Lisa Frankenstein" director returned to Instagram moments after her initial post to slam artificial intelligence in general. "And for the love of EVERYTHING, stop calling it 'the future,'" she charged. "AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be reconsumed." "You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume," Zelda concluded. This wouldn't be the first time the "Mork & Mindy" funnyman's daughter voiced her opposition to AI-generated likenesses of her father since his devastating passing 11 years ago amid a battle with depression and diffuse Lewy body dementia. Zelda previously took to Instagram to advocate against AI in the entertainment industry during the SAG-WGA strike in 2023. At the time, the "House of D" actress argued that "living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices" to "voice cartoons" and "put their human effort and time into the pursuit of performance." "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," she asserted. Matthew Lawrence, meanwhile, has expressed interest in bringing Williams back as the main voice of AI. "Man, it's a real shame that he's not with us," Lawrence, who starred alongside the comedian in "Mrs. Doubtfire," told Entertainment Weekly earlier this year. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't hear his voice." "I even wish, now with artificial intelligence, I kind of want to go to his family and be like, would you guys allow me to use his voice for some sort of creative expression?" he continued. "Because I hear it every day, in my head." Lawrence, 45, returned to the subject of Williams' "iconic voice" in July and once again expressed interest in bringing it back via artificial intelligence. "I would love -- now, obviously, with the respect and with the okay from his family -- but I would love to do something really special with his voice because I know for a generation, that voice is just so iconic," the "Boy Meets World" alum explained. "During his passing, with the AI coming out, I'm like, 'Man, he's gotta be the voice of AI. He's gotta be the voice in something,'" Lawrence added.

Robin Williams' Daughter Takes Stand Against AI Slop Exploiting Her Father's Image - IGN

"It's dumb, it's a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it's not what he'd want," says Zelda Williams. Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin Williams and the director of 2024 horror comedy Lisa Frankenstein, has issued a firm ultimatum for fans to stop sending her AI-generated videos featuring her father. "Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad," wrote Williams in a message posted via Instagram. "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. 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." Willams is adamant in her disgust for AI-generated content and the culture around it. "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," her statement explained. "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." "And for the love of everything, stop calling it 'the future,' AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be reconsumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very, very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume." Williams' new comments echo concerns she raised previously in 2023 about the use of AI to emulate the voices of actors who cannot consent to it. "I've witnessed for years how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad," she wrote at the time. "This isn't theoretical, it is very, very real." Williams' comments came in support of the Screen Actors Guild's (SAG) fight against AI. Robin Williams died in August 2014. The Academy Award winning actor and comedy icon was 63.