The estate of George Carlin has filed a lawsuit over a fake hourlong comedy special that purportedly uses artificial intelligence to recreate the late standup comic’s style and material.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday asks that a judge order the podcast outlet, Dudesy, to immediately take down the audio special, “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” in which a synthesis of Carlin, who died in 2008, delivers commentary on current events.

Carlin’s daughter, Kelly Carlin, said in a statement that the work is “a poorly-executed facsimile cobbled together by unscrupulous individuals to capitalize on the extraordinary goodwill my father established with his adoring fanbase.”

The Carlin estate and its executor, Jerold Hamza, are named as plaintiffs in the suit, which alleges violations of Carlin’s right of publicity and copyright. The named defendants are Dudesy and podcast hosts Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen.

  • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
    113·
    10 months ago

    If the creators didn’t get permission to use Carlin’s name and image, they deserve to be sued.

    They could just as easily have generated an image to use if they didn’t want to be taken to court. Instead they will have an expensive FAFO episode.

    • FaceDeer@kbin.social
      31·
      10 months ago

      They could just as easily have generated an image to use if they didn’t want to be taken to court.

      I don’t know what you mean by this.

      • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
        25·
        10 months ago

        AI can be used to generate images of people. So they could have generated an image, put a fake name - or no name at all - on it, and gone ahead with the “comic relief”.

        Instead they co-opted Carlin’s name and face.

        • FaceDeer@kbin.social
          62·
          10 months ago

          Ah. You haven’t actually watched the video in question, then. At no point did they ever use Carlin’s face.