Late comedian's daughter says tech has 'crossed a line'

George Carlin has released a new special – 15 years after his death.

But the new hour-long show, I’m Glad I’m Dead, has been created with the aid of artificial intelligence, much to the chagrin of the comedian’s daughter. 

It is the product of podcast Dudesy, hosted by journalist Chad Kultgen and comedian Will Sasso, which also uses bots to generate content.

According to the stand-up show’s preamble, the software analysed the late comic’s work then tried to ‘imitate his voice, cadence and attitude’ as well as the subject matter that might have interested him today.

But writing on social media, Kelly Carlin said: ‘My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination. No machine will ever replace his genius. 

‘These AI generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again. 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 added that she had not given permission for the special and said its creators had ‘arrogantly stepped over a line in the world of comedy today that will surely affect dead artists and their estates’.

Last year, Sarah Silverman, launched a lawsuit against ChatGPT owner OpenAI and Facebook’s parent company Meta alleging copyright infringement for scraping the contents of her autobiography Bedwetter.

And in a landmark case, The New York Times is suing OpenAI and its parent company, Microsoft, accusing the developers of taking a ‘free ride’ by building products on the back of its content without permission or payment. The lawsuit suggests the tech company – which is fighting the case – should be held liable for ‘billions of dollars’ in damages.

Dudesy put their defence in the introduction to the Carlin special, having the AI say in the comedian’s voice: ’I just want to let you know very clearly that what you're about to hear is not George Carlin, it’s my impersonation of George Carlin that I developed in the exact same way a human impressionist would.

‘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 so think of it like Andy Kaufman impersonating Elvis or like Will Ferrell impersonating George W Bush.'

The ensuing special covers topics such as mass shootings, Donald Trump and why religious people praise God for the good things in life but do not blame him for the bad.

Also on the agenda is AI, with the bot saying: ‘Seems that many of you are scared of AI… you all think it's going to replace your jobs and you somehow think that's a bad thing. When did everybody all of a sudden start liking their jobs?

With software having no sense of irony, the fake Carlin even jokes that stand-up could be erased by the technology, saying sarcastically: ‘I know what all the stand-up comics across the globe are saying right now, "I’m an artist and my art form is too creative, too nuanced, too subtle to be replicated by a machine. No computer program can tell a fart joke as good as me".’

Elsewhere he says: ‘Art used to be  made by artists that wanted to challenge us to think about the world and our place in it now it's content made by corporations that don't want anyone thinking about anything. These billionaires don't want a thinking  population, they want a distracted population.’

Quite how much real AI is used in Dudesly, and how much it is a conceit, has been the subject of much discussion among the podcast’s fans.

Last year, Sasso told Business Insider the bot ‘is not fake’ insisting he was legally bound not to go into details of the AI technology.

Expert Matthey Housser told the same website: ‘I don't think there's any red flags here that suggests that there's not AI involved, involved being the key word. 

‘Some aspects of it are probably manually managed and curated by humans. It's obvious there's a team that's running the show, but I totally believe that the entire script of every episode is generated by AI, that's very easy to believe.’

Chortle gave Chat GPT the prompt: 'Write a short stand-up comedy routine in the style of George Carlin about AI being a threat to comedians' jobs' – and this is what it came up with: 

You know, I've been thinking about these AI machines. Yeah, those brainy robots that are supposed to make our lives easier. And guess what? Now they’re coming for our jobs.

Yeah, that’s right. Even us, the comedians. I mean, seriously? Picture this: A robot on stage, telling jokes. No drink minimum for the machine, no need for a bathroom break. And if you don’t laugh? It just reprograms itself until you do. Yeah, that's fair competition, right? I always wanted to go head-to-head with a hunk of wires and chips.

And these AI, they're writing jokes now. But here’s the thing, they’re not writing jokes about their own robot lives. No, they're stealing our human experiences! What's next? An AI with a bad childhood? An AI complaining about its motherboard-in-law? I mean, what’s a robot going to joke about? "Oh, I had a rough day, had to process two terabytes of data. And you know how hard it is to get a good Wi-Fi signal in a crowded room?" Yeah, real relatable stuff there, tin man.

And the censorship, oh boy! The AI, it's all politically correct. You won’t hear it swearing or getting into the nitty-gritty of life. Because it doesn’t know jack about life! It’s like competing with a parrot. A very smart parrot, but still.

Imagine a world where comedians are replaced with AI. You walk into a comedy club and there's just a laptop on a stool. And you know what? The laptop kills it. Not because it’s funny, but because it’s hacked into your Facebook profile and is blackmailing you to laugh. That’s the future, folks. A world where you’re blackmailed by a laptop to laugh at its knock-knock jokes.

So, yeah, I'm not worried about AI taking my job. Because at the end of the day, comedy is about the messiness of being human. And until a robot can get drunk, get dumped, and pay taxes, I think my job is safe. And if not, well, I guess I can always get a job repairing them. I hear they have a great healthcare plan.

The real Carlin died in 2008 at the age of 71.

Published: 11 Jan 2024