Things tend to move quickly in the world of technology and artificial intelligence. And since the arrival of ChatGPT, the pace seems to have accelerated. I try to keep up with it as best I can. And I only really write or make videos about it if I have something meaningful to contribute.
But there are some stories I follow more closely for personal reasons. One such story has been the controversy surrounding the AI-generated George Carlin special that came out in early January 2024. I certainly hope I made my feelings on that issue clear. As much as I support the development of AI, I felt like this was in really poor taste.
It didn’t sound much like George Carlin. The humor, while funny at times, didn’t hit as hard as Carlin’s unique brand of comedy. And, most importantly, it was done without the consent of George Carlin’s family, namely his daughter, Kelly Carlin. It’s one thing to impersonate a dead celebrity with living relatives. It’s quite another to use an AI to create what could amount to a post-mortem piece of work that’s done in the mold of that celebrity.
Well, not surprisingly, Kelly Carlin didn’t stop at just scorning the creators of this AI special. According to the Hollywood Reporter, she filed a lawsuit against the creators of the comedy special on the basis that it’s an unauthorized use of George Carlin’s copyrighted work, while also illegally using Carlin’s name and likeness for promotional purposes.
Make no mistake. This case will be of immense interest to those concerned about how we use, abuse, and develop AI in the future. This, on top of new concerns about deepfakes for artists like Taylor Swift, is set to create some major precedents. And they’re bound to affect users, companies, and the nature of the AI’s themselves.
However, the filing of this lawsuit has added a new wrinkle to this controversy that is definitely worth acknowledging. It has since come out that the script for this “special” wasn’t a result of an AI generating it from a compilation of all of Carlin’s past works, as claimed by the creators. It was entirely written by a human named Chad Kultgen.
And, with all due respect to Chad Kultgen, his is no George Carlin. That really showed in the special.
Also, fuck Chad Kultgen for thinking he could match Carlin’s brilliance or even the capability of a non-human AI.
Now, this complication isn’t going to stop the lawsuit. If anything, it might strengthen the case of Carlin’s estate because it makes this special a much clearer violation of illegally using someone’s likeness or brand for promotional purposes. It might even raise to the level of fraud by claiming to be the product of an AI, but was actually just some guy trying to write a special and using George Carlin’s likeness to sell it.
And, regardless of how you feel about the legal implications here, that’s still a dick move. I can’t imagine that makes this any less difficult for Kelly Carlin or the rest of the Carlin family.
But, based on what we now know in wake of this lawsuit, the only thing AI was used for in making this special was to create the not-so-compelling voice that delivered this human-made script and the images included within the video. In terms of capabilities, that’s not a very impressive use of AI. If anything, that makes this special even less impressive.
One of my biggest criticisms of it was that it sounded nothing like Carlin in terms of tone and style. Considering that there are many existing AI tools right now that can closely mirror the voices of celebrities, this just makes the creators of this special seem cheap and lazy. But the script being entirely human-written does help add another important perspective.
As impressive as AI is at the moment, it is a long way from fooling anyone that it could mimic the nuance or mannerisms of a human, let alone one as special as George Carlin. I do wonder if those behind this special actually tried, but quickly realized it couldn’t be done. I also wonder if maybe someone who is even more unscrupulous will actually try again at some point, possibly with better AI tools.
If they do, then this lawsuit becomes even more important. Because the law tends to move much slower than technology. And if AI continues to advance, then incidents like this will become more common. For now, only time will tell what this will mean for the future of AI and those it impacts, living or dead.
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