George Carlin’s Daughter, Kelly, Speaks Out Against New AI Special

After last year’s writers and actor’s strikes, there’s been an increasing amount of talk on the role that AI will play in media in the future. We live in a time where AI content has the ability to replicate things that - on the surface - isn’t too far off. But there’s so much more going on underneath it.

Yesterday, the YouTube channel Dudesy released a new AI comedy special featuring George Carlin, or at least an AI bot doing an “impression” of George Carlin. As Carlin has been dead for over 15 years, it’s clear that he didn’t have any involvement. Instead, the hour long special simulates what it’d be like if George Carlin came back to life to perform a stand-up show. And yes, it even touches on AI in the special. 

The special is definitely controversial for a number of reasons. The most significant reason is that it was produced without any permissions from Carlin or his family. It seems like an invasion of privacy to use a version of his voice to create “new material” that he didn’t even say.

His daughter Kelly Carlin took to Twitter last night to speak out on the controversy in a statement.

“My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination,” she wrote. “No machine will ever replace his genius. These AI generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again,” she wrote. “Let’s let the artist’s work speak for itself. Humans are so afraid of the void that we can’t let what has fallen into it stay there.”

Kelly continued, “Here’s an idea, how about we give some actual living human comedians a listen to? But if you want to listen to the genuine George Carlin, he has 14 specials that you can find anywhere.”

Carlin definitely has a strong point. Her dad spent his entire career culminating one of the most significant voices in comedy history. That’s how he should be remembered, we feel, instead of by things he didn’t say.