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Robin Williams’ daughter has a message for the late actor’s fans.
Zelda Williams, 36, took to social media this week to beg people to stop sending her AI-generated videos of the iconic comedian, who tragically took his own life in August 2014 at the age of 63.
“Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” Zelda began in a post shared to her Instagram Stories on Monday, Oct. 6. “Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t.”
“If you’re just trying to troll me, I’ve seen way worse, i’ll restrict and move on,” she continued. “But please, if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop. It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want.”
Robin shared Zelda with his second wife, Marsha Garces Williams. The pair tied the knot in 1989 and welcomed Zelda and her brother, Cody, 33, before Marsha filed for divorce in 2008 after 19 years of marriage.
The “Jumanji” star shared another son, Zak, 42, with his first wife, Valerie Velardi. Zak remembered his beloved dad last year on the 10th anniversary of his death.
“To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to ‘this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that’s enough’, just so other people can churn out horrible TikTok slop puppeteering them is maddening,” the “Mrs. Doubtfire” star’s daughter continued.
“You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of the history of art and music, and then shoving them down someone else’s throat hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up and like it,” she added. “Gross.”
But Zelda’s message did not end there, because the “Lisa Frankenstein” director returned to Instagram moments after her initial post to slam artificial intelligence in general.
“And for the love of EVERYTHING, stop calling it ‘the future,'” she charged. “AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be reconsumed.”
“You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume,” Zelda concluded.
This wouldn’t be the first time the “Mork & Mindy” funnyman’s daughter voiced her opposition to AI-generated likenesses of her father since his devastating passing 11 years ago amid a battle with depression and diffuse Lewy body dementia.
Zelda previously took to Instagram to advocate against AI in the entertainment industry during the SAG-WGA strike in 2023.
At the time, the “House of D” actress argued that “living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices” to “voice cartoons” and “put their human effort and time into the pursuit of performance.”
“I’ve already heard AI used to get his ‘voice’ to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings,” she asserted.
Matthew Lawrence, meanwhile, has expressed interest in bringing Williams back as the main voice of AI.
“Man, it’s a real shame that he’s not with us,” Lawrence, who starred alongside the comedian in “Mrs. Doubtfire,” told Entertainment Weekly earlier this year. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t hear his voice.”
“I even wish, now with artificial intelligence, I kind of want to go to his family and be like, would you guys allow me to use his voice for some sort of creative expression?” he continued. “Because I hear it every day, in my head.”
Lawrence, 45, returned to the subject of Williams’ “iconic voice” in July and once again expressed interest in bringing it back via artificial intelligence.
“I would love — now, obviously, with the respect and with the okay from his family — but I would love to do something really special with his voice because I know for a generation, that voice is just so iconic,” the “Boy Meets World” alum explained.
“During his passing, with the AI coming out, I’m like, ‘Man, he’s gotta be the voice of AI. He’s gotta be the voice in something,'” Lawrence added.
English (US)