Robin Williams’ AI replicas infuriate actor’s daughter

AI technology is deeply affecting the entertainment business. While the Hollywood actors, led by the SAG-AFTRA union, are still striking against studios using AI, the daughter of award-winning actor Robin Williams, Zelda Williams, expressed her disapproval of the use of AI technology to replicate actors’ faces and voices.

“I am not an impartial voice in SAG’s fight against AI,” wrote Williams on her Instagram story. “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 died by suicide back in 2014. “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,” warned Robin’s daughter.

“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,” concludes Williams.

Earlier this week, another actor, Tom Hanks, posted a warning message to his 9.5 million followers on Instagram about his image being used to promote a dental plan company without his permission. “BEWARE!! There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it,” wrote Hanks.

On The Adam Buxton Podcast, Hanks said that AI is not only a creative challenge but also a legal challenge: “Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are, by way of AI or deep fake technology… I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it, but my performances can go on and on and on,” he said.

“Outside of the understanding that it’s been done by AI or deep fake, there’ll be nothing to tell you that it’s not me and me alone, and it’s going to have some degree of lifelike quality.”