this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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A new comedy special starts with the quote, "I'm sorry it took me so long to come out with new material, but I do have a pretty good excuse. I was dead."

The voice sounds like comedian George Carlin, but that would be impossible, as Carlin died in 2008. The voice in the special is actually generated by an artificial intelligence (AI).

"This is not my father. It's so ghoulish. It's so creepy," Carlin's daughter, Kelly Carlin-McCall, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

The YouTube account Dudesy, which is described as a podcast, artificial intelligence and "first of its kind media experiment," released the hour-long special on Jan. 9. CBC reached out to the producers of Dudesy and its co-host Will Sasso for comment, but did not get a response.

Sasso and co-host Chad Kultgen say they can't reveal the company behind the AI due to a non-disclosure agreement, according to Vice. The channel launched in March 2022.

Carlin-McCall said the channel never reached out to the family or asked for permission to use her father's likeness. She says her father took great pride in the thought and effort he put into writing his material.

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[–] jopepa@lemmy.world 76 points 10 months ago (9 children)

Stuff like this makes me think we’re witnessing so many crimes that we don’t have a names for yet.

[–] RedditWanderer@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago (2 children)

You wouldn't download a person!

[–] jopepa@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

Some might, I think we’re coming up on an interesting ethical impasse with this tech

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[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Eh, I think this is just intellectual property right infringement with a side of being an insensitive dumbass and not really that new. Like, how is this any different than someone dressing up in a George Carlin costume and doing their George Carlin impression for an hour? Shouldn't be using George Carlin's name to sell your stuff, but it's not like anyone got enslaved or he dug up Carlin's corpse or anything.

e; I'm not sure if this detail changes anything, but did the AI write these jokes or just do the voiceover work? I was under the impression that it just did the voice and another human wrote the material

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 74 points 10 months ago (15 children)

I don't care about the technology. I don't even care if it's funny. It's in terrible taste.

If you have a funny standup set, do your routine yourself. If you want funny topical comedy, there are literally dozens of comedians alive today you can watch right now on multiple streaming services and YouTube.

There is no reason to do this other than to be tasteless.

I don't believe in blasphemy, but if I did, putting words in the mouth of an incredibly insightful genius and presenting it as his words would be blasphemy.

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If Carlin himself approved it before dying, I might listen to it. But nope. You said it yourself. Plenty of living talent right now.

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[–] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There is no reason to do this other than to be tasteless.

Greed?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago

I'd call greed being tasteless, but I guess we could count it as a second reason.

[–] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Jay Leno bitched that he was annoyed when someone would put on a comedy album for friends, and 'try to take the credit' for being funny.

This kind of feels like a logical extension of that.

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[–] MrJameGumb@lemmy.world 48 points 10 months ago (17 children)

I don't understand why anyone who was a fan of George Carlin would ever do this... It seems like something someone who didn't like Carlin would do. What was the point?

[–] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 39 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What was the point?

Money.

Some also-ran hacks who aren't fit to be in the same room as Carlin are using him to make a name for themselves and drive views to their bullshit channel.

It is grift, pure and simple.

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[–] CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Boy though I would love to hear Carlin's opinion on all this AI shit. I think he would get a perverse kick out of seeing himself poorly re-created in such a manner, but I also think he would tear to shreds the kind of people who think it's a good idea to use it like this.

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[–] Gork@lemm.ee 28 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Carlin-McCall said the channel never reached out to the family or asked for permission to use her father's likeness.

I smell a lawsuit incoming.

[–] Rusticus@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I hope so. It’s so evil to do this without permission.

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[–] zanyllama52@infosec.pub 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Interesting concept. I watched the first 10 minutes or so. The video goes to great lengths to clearly describe that this is neither Carlin's voice or jokes. The material is roughly George Carlin-ish, but not great. The AI voice is not quite believable either.

It's not really for me, and also not a crime in my view. Just a weird thing someone did.

[–] CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Honestly it came off on the level of a pretty decent impressionist. Not quite on Carlin's level, but evocative enough of his patter and sensibility to make me wish it was the real thing, and there were moments in it where I could almost pretend that it was.

Man, I miss Carlin.

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[–] HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Standup comedy is meant to be relatable, the best standup material makes fun of the writer's real experiences and/or common experiences of the audience. This is just my hot take, but I think an AI writing standup comedy is and always will be completely soulless because the AI has never experienced anything and is just putting words together that it doesn't even know the significance of, and is doing so purely based on the statistics of how real human standup uses those words. Even with AI acting out standup written by humans, they still don't understand what they're saying and the emotions they supposedly show are still based on statistics. If you find AI standup funny, you have that right, but I personally don't and that's just me.

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[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Think of how stupid the average AI is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

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[–] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Carlin-McCall said the channel never reached out to the family or asked for permission to use her father’s likeness.

Welcome to the world of posthumous digital slavery!

When a person dies, anyone can do what ever they want with their image and life's work.

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 18 points 10 months ago (70 children)

Calling this "slavery" is ridiculously overly-emotive. You can't enslave a dead person.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You can’t enslave a dead person.

Give the investor class time.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

If we were able to digitize the mind of George Carlin, and then we forced that digital mind to write and perform new standup material or be tortured, that would be enslavement of a dead person, and yeah, that sounds like something financiers would love

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[–] LastoftheDinosaurs@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't really sound like him. It's an impersonation ran through an AI tuner. It's the autotune of AI.

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[–] PugJesus@kbin.social 11 points 10 months ago (23 children)

We really need stronger restrictions on AI usage.

[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Only for corporate use. Leave the people doing fun non profit parody things alone. Its the people doing this...or stealing someones likenesses to sell a product that need to be regulated

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[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.today 9 points 9 months ago

I just realized Stephen Colbert doesn't own the rights to himself, so there could be that trainwreck soon as well.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

this is what I thought about the post mortem carrie fisher scene as well. It feels ghoulish.

The Carlin script is clearly written by people as there's phrases he liked to use to describe power that simply weren't used but it did capture his rhythm pretty well. My guess is they fed the AI with jokes they wrote and had it rewrite them in his style

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