The late George Carlin was one of the greatest actors and comedians of his era, with roles too numerous to list, and died at the age of 71 in 2008. Such was Carlin's industry and volume of work that he remains a recognisable and beloved figure to this day, which may be why a podcast called Dudesy recently decided to use his likeness in an apparently AI-authored one hour comedy special titled, and this is almost unbelievable, "George Carlin: I'm Glad I'm Dead."
The special itself is a slurry of sub-Carlin jokes set to AI-generated stills, with the software doing a weird impression of the comedian's voice. There's no imagery of Carlin himself other than a presumably AI-generated thumbnail showing a man with Carlin's distinctive grey ponytail. The backlash to this was instantaneous and widespread, with his daughter Kelly Carlin saying no permission was sought or granted, and "no machine will ever replace his genius [...] Humans are so afraid of the void that we can’t let what has fallen into it stay there … if you want to listen to the genuine George Carlin, he has 14 specials that you can find anywhere."
