Robin Williams' daughter pleads for people to stop sending AI videos of her dad

Plea vs Legal Action

• Many see her public request as the right first step: telling people “this hurts me, please stop” is faster and less traumatic than years of lawsuits.
• Others argue she should sue AI companies or platforms, citing publicity rights over a person’s name, image, and voice, and recent deepfake lawsuits.
• Counterpoints: lawsuits would be slow, expensive, emotionally draining, jurisdictionally difficult, and unlikely to stop people from simply switching models or tools.

AI Replicas of the Dead and Deepfakes

• Strong disgust at “AI simulacra” of dead people; described as ghoulish and emotionally manipulative.
• Especially condemned when used in court or media to “give murder victims a voice,” seen as akin to using a spirit medium but given undue legitimacy because it’s high‑tech.
• Some nuance: consensual uses (e.g., actors licensing their voice/likeness, finishing films after death) are viewed as more acceptable; also historical figures with no living family.
• A key distinction: creating a likeness vs pushing it onto grieving relatives.

Is AI/LLMs a Net Harm?

• Several commenters wish modern AI (especially LLMs and generative models) had never been invented, seeing mainly job loss, plagiarism of artists, and harassment.
• Others defend “technology as a tool,” but are challenged with examples like nukes, bioweapons, fentanyl, and “rolling coal” to show some tech is inherently skewed toward harm.
• Debate over whether this “AI revolution” differs from the industrial revolution: fewer obvious new mass professions, much faster disruption, and unclear long‑term upside.

Harassment, Spam, and the Streisand Effect

• Sending AI videos of her father is framed as a form of harassment or trauma‑inducing spam, not fandom.
• Some worry the plea will trigger a Streisand‑style backlash; others say if people respond by sending more content, that’s no longer curiosity but cruelty.
• Analogies drawn to junk mail, deepfake bullying of kids, and future personalized harassment at scale.

Rights Over Likeness and Law Design

• Examples raised of postmortem publicity rights (decades after death) and new laws treating a person’s likeness/voice as copyrighted.
• Supporters see this as a needed shield against deepfakes; critics fear overbroad, long‑lasting rights captured by corporations that chill creativity and speech.
• Alternative suggestion: treat it as a privacy/harassment violation rather than new property rights.

Cultural and Social Media Consequences

• Generative content is called “slop” and “recycling the past,” eroding authenticity and human connection on social media.
• Some predict oversaturation will eventually make such content uninteresting, but others note the focus will then shift from celebrities to ordinary victims.
• AI fakes of historical photos and Q&A plagiarism are cited as examples of reality being replaced by aesthetically pleasing but false narratives, with comparisons to fascist nostalgia and inhuman futurism.