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George Carlin’s estate has filed a lawsuit against Dudesy, the media company behind the recent AI-generated hour-long viral comedy special, “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” which featured an approximation of the voice and comedy style of late comedian that was supposedly generated by a chatbot trained with Carlin’s own material.
Filed in federal court in California on Thursday, the plaintiff seeks a court order for the special’s immediate removal, plus an unspecified amount in damages. The lawsuit alleges that the company infringed copyright by using Carlin’s materials to train the chatbot without requesting permission or license.
At the beginning of the special, which is still available to watch on YouTube at this time, you hear an approximation of Carlin’s voice, who states that “I listened to all of George Carlin’s material and did my best to imitate his voice, cadence and attitude as well as the topic that I think would have interested you today.” The lawsuit alleges that in doing so, the chatbot created unauthorized copies of Carlin’s copyrighted work. The plaintiff also alleges that the content damages the late comedian’s reputation and takes issue with a recreation of Carlin’s voice being used to promote the video, calling the special “a casual theft of the work of a great American entertainer.”
Dudesy podcast hosts Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen are charged, along with twenty John Does: five creators associated with the AI show and 15 people linked to the “creation, production and sponsorship” of the special.
“My father was a legendary comedian and a once-in-a-lifetime talent whose legacy is the body of work he left behind: his actual performances, albums and books. I understand and share the desire for more George Carlin. I also want more time with my father. But it is ridiculous to proclaim that he has been ‘resurrected’ with AI,” the comedian’s daughter, Kelly Carlin, wrote in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “The ‘George Carlin’ in that video is not the beautiful human being who defined his generation and raised me with love. He is a poorly executed facsimile, cobbled together by unscrupulous individuals to capitalize on the extraordinary goodwill my father established with his adoring fan base.”
The case represents one of the first major cases in which an artist or their estate seeks legal action against the creators of an AI-generated recreation, a growing concern across the entertainment industry.
“AI may be the most important technology invented in generations, and therefore requires a great deal of scrutiny and restraint to ensure it is not misused,” attorney Josh Schiller of Boies Schiller Flexner, LLP said in a statement. “We run the risk of it becoming a tool that allows bad faith actors to replace creative expression, exploit the existing work of creators and enrich themselves at the expense of others. “This case is not just about AI, it is about humans using it to break the law, infringe intellectual property rights, and disregard common decency.”