The use of AI inappropriately replicating the voices and likenesses of public figures has sparked legal action from the estate of comedian George Carlin and concerns from Taylor Swift regarding sexually explicit AI-generated images of her.
Carlin’s estate has filed a lawsuit against a media company for creating an AI recreation of Carlin’s voice and comedy style without permission.
Similarly, Swift has faced AI-generated explicit images circulating on social media, prompting her fans and others to speak out.
What’s happened to Taylor Swift is nothing new. For yrs, women have been targets of deepfakes w/o their consent. And w/ advancements in AI, creating deepfakes is easier & cheaper.
This is an issue both sides of the aisle & even Swifties should be able to come together to solve.
— Yvette D. Clarke (@RepYvetteClarke) January 25, 2024
“My father was a legendary comedian and a once-in-a-lifetime talent whose legacy is the body of work that he left behind — his actual performances, albums and books,” Carlin’s daughter Kelly said. “I understand and share the desire for more George Carlin. I, too, want more time with my father. But it is ridiculous to proclaim he has been ‘resurrected’ with AI.
“The ‘George Carlin’ in that video is not the beautiful human who defined his generation and raised me with love.”
“It is a poorly-executed facsimile cobbled together by unscrupulous individuals to capitalize on the extraordinary goodwill my father established with his adoring fanbase,” she said.
The issue has raised concerns regarding the misuse of AI and the potential for a surge in nonconsensual AI-generated content.
“It’s always been a dark undercurrent of the internet, nonconsensual pornography of various sorts,” computer science professor Oren Etzioni said. “Now it’s a new strain of it that’s particularly noxious.”
“We are going to see a tsunami of these A.I.-generated explicit images. The people who generated this see this as a success,” Etzioni said.
