Zelda Williams has made a heartfelt request for fans to refrain from sharing artificial intelligence-generated videos of her father, Robin Williams. She finds these recreations unsettling and has expressed her disapproval.
The 36-year-old filmmaker took to her Instagram Story on October 6 to address those tagging her in AI-generated clips of the iconic comedian, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 63.
“Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” Zelda urged.
“Stop believing I want to see it or that I’ll understand. I don’t and I won’t. If you’re trying to troll me, I’ve seen way worse, I’ll just restrict and move on. But if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop.
“It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want.”
She criticized the rising trend of using AI to replicate real-life celebrities.
Zelda continued: “Watching the legacies of real people reduced to ‘this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that’s enough’, just for others to produce unpleasant TikTok content using them, is infuriating.
“You’re not creating art; you’re making unpleasant, over-processed imitations of human lives, the history of art and music, forcing them onto others in hopes of getting a like. Gross.”
Concluding her statement, she criticized the belief that AI represents ‘the future’, suggesting it’s merely a system recycling and repurposing existing material for repeated consumption.
She compared the process to a ‘Human Centipede of content’, where those at the end passively consume what’s been recycled, while those at the front continue to exploit the system.
This is not the first time Zelda has spoken against AI recreations of her father. During the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes, she criticized the technology for exploiting actors without their consent, calling it ‘disturbing’.
“For years, I’ve seen how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. This isn’t theoretical, it is very very real,” she stated at the time.
Describing AI versions of Robin as ‘personally disturbing’, Zelda noted that these recreations are, at best, a poor imitation of remarkable individuals and, at worst, a monstrous creation.