this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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George Carlin Estate Files Lawsuit Against Group Behind AI-Generated Stand-Up Special: ‘A Casual Theft of a Great American Artist’s Work’::George Carlin's estate has filed a lawsuit against the creators behind an AI-generated comedy special featuring a recreation of the comedian's voice.

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 10 months ago (102 children)

This case is not just about AI, it’s about the humans that use AI to violate the law, infringe on intellectual property rights and flout common decency.”

Well put.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Eh…. I don’t know that I can agree with this.

I understand the intent behind it, but this specific instance is legitimately in parallel with impersonators, or satire. Hear me out.

They are impersonating his voice, using new content in his style, and make no claim to be legitimate.

So this comes down to “this is in bad taste” which, while I can understand and might even agree with… isn’t illegal.

The only novel concept in this, is that “scary tech” was used. There was no fraud, there was no IP violation, and no defamation. Where is the legal standing?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They didn't write satire in his style, they sampled his actual work with a machine. It's not a parody of George Carlin, it's an inferior approximation of him.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I didn’t say this was satire, I said it was in line with satire on a legal front. And why did you ignore the “impersonator” line immediately before it and jump straight into parody?

They sampled his work, yes. To get voice, pacing, image, etc. they didn’t then have it spit out copies, or even remixes of his previous work, they had it create new content and made it clear it was not him.

I don’t see this as any different than an impersonator watching hundreds of hours of his routines, getting into character visually and verbally, and walking out on stage to do their own routine.

In fact, let me just ask directly: would you be taking issue with this if it was a real human, no AI involved, who had dressed and trained to move and sound approximately like the man, and then filmed it and put it online? Would you say that is illegal?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (20 children)

It is not in any way in line with Satire. They sampled his work with a machine.

If a real human did this, no AI involved, then that human's interpretation of Carlin's mannerisms, speech patterns, and humor would all be much more varied than if that human remixed Carlin's own words and copied his own imagery.

Plus, if somebody came out on stage and started calling themselves Stephen Colbert or Larry the Cable Guy, then guess what? That's fucking illegal.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (6 children)

They trained the AI on his material. That's theft of IP without a license or agreement.

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