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George Carlin's estate has filed a lawsuit against a comedy special which uses generative artificial intelligence in order to mimic the late comedian's voice, as well as his humor, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The suit was filed in a California federal court Thursday. The complaint accused the special's creators of using George Carlin's whole body of work without consent or compensation. It further alleged that Carlin's 50 years of comedy routines was used to train an AI chatbot, which supposedly wrote the script. Another complaint was regarding using the comedian's voice and likeness to promote the special.
The lawsuit is seeking a court order to immediately remove the special and unspecified damages. This is one of the first legal complaints filed by a deceased celebrity's estate against the unlicensed use of their work and/or likeness in order to create a new AI-generated work. This comes on the heels of some of Hollywood up in arms against AI impersonating people with their consent or being compensated.
Carlin's daughter, author and producer Kelly Carlin, told THR, “We have to draw a line in the sand.”
“This is going to be a fight on every front, with entertainment at the center,” she added.
George Carlin's estate vs. Dudsey AI
The lawsuit comes from the one-hour special George Carlin: I'm Glad I'm Dead released on Jan. 9 on Dudesy, a podcast from Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen on YouTube. It's billed as a “first of its kind media experiment.”
The show is about using Dudsey AI. This has access to most of the hosts' personal records such as text messages, social media accounts and browsing histories. The AI uses those sources to control, create and write episodes in Sasso and Kutlgen's style.
Since Carlin died in 2008, the AI used by the Dudesy hosts imitated his signature style and cadence. This AI — using Carlin's voice and “style” — then talks about modern topics like reality TV, streaming services and even AI itself. These topics became mainstream after the comic's death.
Carlin's works are under copyright and the hosts had no permission to use them, which is the basis of the complaint. The start of the video even admits that since it stated that the AI went through all of Carlin's original routines owned by the comedian's estate to use as training materials, “thereby making unauthorized copies.”
No AI Fraud Act
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Since AI, specially generative AI is relatively new, there aren't a lot of laws in place to protect the use of artificial intelligence to imitate someone's likeness or voice.
There are a few laws here and there that are still in the proposal stage, but not enough for potential plaintiffs to be secure in the knowledge that if they sue they can actually win.
However, there's a bit of hope. The No AI Fraud Act wants to give individuals the right to exclusive approve the use of their image, voice and likeness (visual or otherwise) by giving them intellectual property rights. It would also provide this right at the federal level.
If this bill is passed, unauthorized uses would be punishable to stuff penalties. Even better, lawsuits can be brought by any individual or group whose rights were violated.
The hope is that it will be able to help Carlin's estate fight. And if they win, it could open the doors to other lawsuits and regulate the use of artificial intelligence.
“The irony of all of this is that my father was such a unique thinker,” Kelly Carlin said.
“One thing he said to people is ‘Think for yourself,' and here are these people absorbing his material to try and think like him. It's the ultimate zombification of a human life,” she added.
