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.

  • FaceDeer@kbin.social
    31·
    5 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·
      5 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.