The estate of comedian George Carlin has filed a lawsuit over the release of a comedy special that utilizes artificial intelligence to replicate the late comedian’s voice and comedic style.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, accuses the creators of the special of using George Carlin’s extensive body of work, spanning five decades of comedy routines, to train an AI chatbot that wrote the script for the episode. It also takes issue with the unauthorized use of Carlin’s voice and likeness for promotional purposes.
The complaint seeks a court order for the immediate removal of the special, as well as unspecified damages. This legal action is one of the first instances of a deceased celebrity’s estate taking legal action against the unlicensed use of their work and likeness to create a new, AI-generated production. It comes at a time when Hollywood is expressing concerns over the use of AI to impersonate individuals without their consent or compensation.
Kelly Carlin, George Carlin’s daughter and an author and producer, emphasized the need to draw a line in the sand, stating, “This is going to be a fight on every front, with entertainment at the center.”
The legal dispute revolves around an hourlong special titled “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” released on the YouTube channel of Dudesy, a podcast hosted by Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen. The special uses an AI program called “Dudsey AI” to write, create, and control episodes in the style of Sasso and Kultgen, who are named in the complaint.
In the special, an AI-generated George Carlin, emulating the comedian’s distinctive style and delivery, provides commentary over images created by AI and discusses modern topics such as reality TV, streaming services, and AI itself. The complaint alleges that the special was created through the unauthorized use of Carlin’s copyrighted works, as the AI program ingested five decades of Carlin’s original stand-up routines, which are owned by the comedian’s estate, as training materials, thereby making unauthorized copies of the copyrighted works.
