George Carlin’s daughter has blasted an hour-long AI generated comedy special starring her father 15 years after he died.
Following the release, she wrote on X, formerly Twitter: ‘No machine will ever replace his genius.’
The post follows months of Hollywood strikes over fears that artificial intelligence will replace jobs in the industry.
The hour-long special, titled George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead, was made by Dudesy, a podcast and YouTube show run by Artificial Intelligence and curated by humans.
It is hosted by Chad Kultgen and Will Sasso, who allowed the Dudesy AI to take content from their texts, emails, social media accounts, and their own work.
Comedian George Carlin performs in Chicago, Illinois, February 3, 1982
The hour-long special, titled George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead, was made by Dudesy, a podcast run by Artificial Intelligence and curated by humans
Kelly Carlin ‘George Carlin’s American Dream’ film premiere, Los Angeles, California, on May 11, 2022
George Carlin’s daughter Kelly criticized the special on Wednesday, taking to X. She wrote: ‘My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination. 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’
Kelly, a strong proponent of preserving her father’s legacy, added: ‘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 concluded: ‘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’
Sasso denied that the Dudesy AI is fake in an interview with Business Intelligence and said an NDA stopped him from disclosing the legal entity.
At the start of the special, Dudesy notes that ‘what you’re about to hear is not George Carlin’.
It adds that for the process of honing the comedian’s style it ‘listened to all of George Carlin’s material and did my best to imitate his voice, cadence and attitude as well as the subject matter I think would have interested him today’.
The AI Carlin then launches into material on some of the biggest issues of today, including social media and mass shootings.
At one point, the AI Carlin makes a joke about artificial intelligence.
‘There’s one line of work that is most threatened by AI — one job that is most likely to be completely erased because of artificial intelligence: stand-up comedy,’ he says.
‘I know what all the stand-up comics across the globe are saying right now: “I’m an artist and my art form is too creative, too nuanced, too subtle to be replicated by a machine. No computer program can tell a fart joke as good as me.'”
Kelly Carlin criticized the special on Wednesday, writing on X: ‘My statement regarding the AI generated George Carlin special: My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination. 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.
George Carlin finishes his act with a flourish after receiving a Free Speech award at the US Comedy Arts Festival, in Aspen, Colorado, on March 2, 2002
‘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.’
She concluded: ‘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.’
When one X user asked Kelly if ‘this clown had permission,’ she wrote under a repost of the question, ‘ZERO PERMISSION GRANTED.’
As well as his frequent television appearances, the comedian, known for pushing the boundaries of acceptable humor, also released several comedy records and appeared in a number of films.
Carlin suffered three heart attacks over three decades – in 1978, 1982, and 1991.
In 2003, he had an ablation procedure due to an arrhythmia and in 2005 he had significant heart failure.
On June 22, 2008, Carlin experienced heart failure and passed away at a hospital in Santa Monica, California.
He was aged 71 and had performed his last live show just a week earlier.
Throughout his early career, Carlin was married to Brenda Hosbrook, with whom he had his only child Kelly in 1963.
Carlin speaks after being presented the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 15th annual American Comedy Awards in Los Angeles, on April 22, 2001
She has been a strong proponent of preserving her father’s legacy as one of the most influential comedians of all time.
Last year, Hollywood was shaken by walkouts from both actors’ and writers’ unions, which closed down productions and forced the delay of major releases.
Netflix scrapped more than 100 shows from its programming slate in 2023 due to the impact of the strikes and a cut back in its spending.
The streaming giant released about 130 fewer films and television shows last year than in 2022, a drop of 16 per cent.
The company had previously increased original production every year over the past decade.
Netflix’s output decreased by around a quarter in the second half of 2023 when the strikes were taking place.
Its release slate in the final last three months of the year was the lowest in five years, according to Bloomberg analysis of data from What’s On Netflix.