There are grotesque gen AI mock-ups of Robin Williams on the internet.
These tasteless mockeries not the only problem with AI slop. But, for Zelda Williams, they’re the most personal one.
She’s speaking out, condemning these gross images and videos that dishonor her father’s memory.
There’s no good use for generative AI. But puppeteering her late father’s face is definitely one of the most tasteless.
During a recent post to her Instagram Story, Zelda Williams took a swing at grotesque genAI mockeries of late father Robin Williams.
The legendary actor and comedian passed away in 2014.
“Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” Zelda wrote on her Story.
“Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand,” she urged. “I don’t and I won’t.”
Zelda also acknowledged that some people may be sending her this ghoulish AI slop with malicious intent.
“If you’re just trying to troll me, I’ve seen way worse, I’ll restrict and move on,” Zelda told potential malefactors.
“But please, if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me,” she asked.
Zelda added: “to everyone even, full stop.”
Speaking more generally of genAI and its repulsive creations, she urged that anyone still messing with it should cut it out.
“It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy,” Zelda stated accurately. “And believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want.”
She calls out the ‘horrible TikTok slop puppeteering’ her father and others
“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,” Zelda lamented.
Her late father, Robin Williams, is only one of many deceased celebrities whose likeness has been misused by the the overly credulous users of these plagiarism engines.
“You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings,” Zelda noted accurately.
She added that people are making this slop “out of the history of art and music.”
Zelda continued: “And then shoving them down someone else’s throat hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up and like it. Gross.”
In a subsequent Story post, Zelda added: “And for the love of EVERY THING, stop calling it ‘the future.'”
It is smart to remember that, just a few years ago, people were insisting that NFTs were the future. And, a decade ago, the pivot-to-video scam decimated multiple companies. This is not the future.
“AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed,” she summarized.
“You are taking in the Human Centipede of content,” Zelda characterized. “and from the very very end of the line.”
She concluded: “All while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume.”
Long after the AI bubble bursts, humanity will be cleaning up the mess
Generative AI is a global problem that will take years to clean up.
Critics have likened the prevalence of nonsensical, plagiarized, and outright false text and images on the internet to asbestos — a dangerous mess that future generations will have to clean up from the internet.
Additionally, the desperate push for this product that very few people want is destroying jobs. Gen AI cannot do someone’s job, but a company might convince someone’s boss that it can — which has the same effect upon workers.
Obviously, Zelda is well aware of all of this. She has been speaking out against this ethically indefensible tech — which many have called a scam — for years.
But when people use it to dishonor Robin Williams’ likeness and voice, it hits a new and personal low for her. Just don’t do it.