AI-Generated George Carlin Drops Comedy Special

'No machine will ever replace his genius,' late comedian's daughter says
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 11, 2024 1:10 PM CST
AI-Generated George Carlin Drops Comedy Special
The real George Carlin.   (George Carlin Estate/HBO via AP)

George Carlin had a famous "Seven Words You Can't Say on TV" routine—and if the comedian was alive today, he might use several of them to slam what's being billed as an artificial intelligence-generated Carlin comedy special. His daughter Kelly Carlin definitely isn't impressed. "My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination," she said in a statement on X Wednesday. "No machine will ever replace his genius." The hour-long "George Carlin: Glad I'm Dead" special was released Tuesday by the AI-generated "Dudesy," which "hosts" a podcast with comedian Will Sasso and writer Chad Kultgen, Variety reports.

At the start of the special, Dudesy explains that the content was created through the same methods a human impressionist would use, USA Today reports. "I listened to all of George Carlin's material and did my best to imitate his voice, cadence, and attitude, as well as the subject matter I think would have interested him today, " it said. Rolling Stone describes the special, in which the AI-generated Carlin discusses topics including mass shootings, billionaires, social media, and this year's election, as a "eerie revival" of the comedian, who died in 2008.

"These AI generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again," Carlin's daughter wrote. "Let's let the artist's work speak for itself. Humans are so afraid of the void that we can't let what has fallen into it stay there." She suggested that people listen to some "actual living human comedians," adding that if people want "to listen to the genuine George Carlin, he has 14 specials that you can find anywhere." Earlier this year, Sasso told BIV that the Dudesy AI wasn't "fake," as some commenters had suggested. AI experts told the publication it was easy to believe that the scripts were generated by AI, though some aspects of the podcast were probably "curated by humans." (More George Carlin stories.)

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