The George Carlin Estate has filed a lawsuit against the company behind the AI generated comedy special imitating the late comedian, calling its creation "a casual theft of a great American artist's work".
As reported by Variety, the George Carlin Estate is seeking the immediate removal of the special — which was released by the Dudesy YouTube channel as an hour long set titled I'm Glad I'm Dead — alongside an unspecified amount of damages.
Kelly Carlin, the daughter of the late comedian who has previously spoken against the AI generated special, announced the lawsuit. It alleges Dudesy infringed on copyright by using Carlin's content to train the chatbot without seeking permission or licensing and claims it hurts Carlin's reputation.
"My father was a legendary comedian and a once-in-a-lifetime talent whose legacy is the body of work that he left behind — his actual performances, albums, and books," Kelly Carlin said. "I understand and share the desire for more George Carlin. I, too, want more time with my father. But it is ridiculous to proclaim he has been ‘resurrected’ with AI.
"The ‘George Carlin’ in that video is not the beautiful human who defined his generation and raised me with love. It is a poorly-executed facsimile cobbled together by unscrupulous individuals to capitalize on the extraordinary goodwill my father established with his adoring fanbase."
Dudesy introduces the special, which is still available to watch at the time of writing, by claiming it's like "Andy Kaufman impersonating Elvis or like Will Ferrell impersonating George W. Bush." The AI expanded further in the video description: "For the next hour I'll be doing my best George Carlin impersonation just like a human being would. I tried to capture his iconic style to tackle the topics I think the comedy legend would be talking about today."
Though it's appeared in many forms over the past few years and decades, artificial intelligence really took off in 2023. AI chat services like ChatGPT were first to make headlines, but excitement and possibilities soon turned to concern and doubt. Other projects like a Seinfeld-inspired AI show emerged, promising nothing, forever, while AI art of all kinds was slammed by major figures of several creative industries.
Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin is also among 17 authors and the Authors Guild suing OpenAI for copyright infringement, claiming it copied the authors' work by using it to train its AI tools like ChatGPT without permission.
Image Credit: Mark Junge/Getty Images
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
