Zelda Williams, daughter of the late actor and comedian Robin Williams, has publicly requested that individuals cease sending her AI-generated videos featuring her father, who passed away in 2014.
In a message shared on her Instagram stories, Zelda Williams stated, “Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad.”
She continued, “Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t. If you’re just trying to troll me, I’ve seen way worse, I’ll restrict and move on.”
“But please, if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop. It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want.”
This is not the first instance of Zelda Williams, a film director, voicing her disapproval of AI renditions of her father. Robin Williams, known for his roles in films such as *Good Morning Vietnam*, *Dead Poets Society*, and *Mrs. Doubtfire*, died by suicide in 2014 at the age of 63, following a battle with depression.
In 2023, Zelda Williams expressed her sentiments in an Instagram post supporting an anti-AI campaign by SAG-Aftra, the US media union. She described attempts to recreate her father’s voice as “personally disturbing,” and highlighted the broader implications of such technology.
Her recent post reflects a growing trend on social media, where deceased individuals are digitally animated, often accompanied by captions promising to “bring your loved ones back to life.”
Williams elaborated: “To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to ‘this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that’s enough’, just so other people can churn out horrible TikTok slop puppeteering them is maddening,” she continued.
“You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of the history of art and music, and then shoving them down someone else’s throat hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up and like it. Gross.”
She concluded: “And for the love of EVERY THING, stop calling it ‘the future,’ AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume.”
The Human Centipede is a reference to the 2009 body horror film.
Her latest comments follow the unveiling of “AI actor” Tilly Norwood, which sparked significant debate.
Norwood was created by Dutch actor and comedian Eline Van der Velden, who reportedly expressed her ambition for Norwood to become the “next Scarlett Johansson.”
SAG-Aftra issued a statement asserting that Norwood “is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers.”
“It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience,” the union added.
Actress Emily Blunt recently expressed her apprehension about the concept of Norwood, labeling it “terrifying.”
“That is really, really scary, Come on, agencies, don’t do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection,” she said on a podcast with Variety.
Van der Velden later said in a statement: “To those who have expressed anger over the creation of my AI character, Tilly Norwood, she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art.
“Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity.”
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