“No Comedic or Creative Value”: George Carlin’s Estate Takes Online AI Version Of Comedy Icon To Court

deadline.com:

Over 50 years ago, the late and great George Carlin listed off the seven words you couldn’t say on television. Based on a lawsuit from the iconic comedian’s estate filed in federal court in California today, at least two of those words may apply to the creators of an AI generated special that uses Carlin’s style and voice to a 2024 effect.

AKA: “a bastardization of Carlin’s real work,”  the copyright infringement complaint says. “Defendants’ AI-generated “George Carlin Special” is not a creative work,” it goes on to exclaim. “It is a piece of computer-generated click-bait which detracts from the value of Carlin’s comedic works and harms his reputation.”  “Defendants sought to capitalize on the name, reputation, and likeness of George Carlin in creating, promoting, and distributing the Dudesy Special and using generated images of Carlin, Carlin’s voice, and images designed to evoke Carlin’s presence on a stage,” states the filing, put in the federal docket in California Thursday against podcast hosts Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen and a handful of John Does.

Read here the lawsuit from George Carlin’s estate against the creators of an AI generated Carlin Dropped online on January 9 on YouTube the just over one hour George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead special openly claims that “for the next hour I’ll be doing my best George Carlin impersonation just like a human being would.

I tried to capture his iconic style to tackle the topics I think the comedy legend would be talking about today.” Packed with hackneyed AI generated graphs, the specialtries to tackle contemporary topics such as Reality TV, Trump and the election and even AI itself.