Zelda Williams, the daughter of late actor and comedian Robin Williams, is speaking out against the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to recreate her father’s voice, calling it “disturbing.”
Williams wrote a social media post weighing in on AI amid the ongoing actors strike. The Hollywood union, SAG-AFTRA, has voiced concerns surrounding AI usage.
“I am not an impartial voice in SAG’s fight against AI. I’ve witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/re-create actors who cannot consent, like Dad,” Williams wrote in a story post on her Instagram page Sunday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“This isn’t theoretical, it is very very real. I’ve already heard AI used to get his ‘voice’ to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings,” she reportedly added.
The SAG-AFTRA union launched its strike earlier this year seeking better pay and working conditions. The union, which represents more than 160,000 members, has been in negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). It has raised AI recreations as a top concern.
“Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance,” Zelda Williams, 34, added in her post Sunday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“These re-creations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people, but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for.”
Williams’s remarks comes as her father’s voice is set to be used in a new short film, "Once Upon a Studio," produced and distributed by Disney. Robin Williams's “Aladdin” character, Genie, will appear in the film.
Actor Josh Gad, who voiced Olaf in Disney’s “Frozen,” wrote on Instagram the new film will use “previously unheard dialogue” recorded by the actor prior to his death and the late actor’s estate allowed use of the dialogue.
Williams, 63, died by suicide in 2014 after battles with anxiety, severe depression and Parkinson’s disease.
