Column: The George Carlin auto-generated comedy special is everything that’s wrong with AI right now
Los Angeles TimesJan 18
George Carlin's Estate Sues Over AI Comedy Recreation
The Facts
The estate of the late comedian George Carlin on Thursday filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles federal court against the media company that used artificial intelligence (AI) to create a comedy special mimicking Carlin's style and delivery.
The lawsuit centers around an hour-long audio “comedy special” called “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” which was created by the Dudesy media company and uploaded to its YouTube channel. The estate claims the video was a copyright infringement and a violation of Carlin’s right to publicity.
The Spin
Narrative A
This AI production is a slap in the face to the iconic comedian and an example of the problems AI is causing for humanity. Right now, most AI-generated content is poor quality and can be identified as AI fairly easily. However, as the technology improves, it will be more difficult to differentiate it from humans. AI of this sort might be more trouble than it's worth.
Narrative B
The backlash to this special shows people don't understand how AI works. AI might be labeled "artificial," but it's made through the use of human input. People should think of the AI as an impressionist paying homage to the late, great comic, not as some sort of danger to humanity.
Nerd narrative
There's a 95% chance that there will be human-machine intelligence parity before 2040, according to the Metaculus prediction community.