Robin Williams' daughter Zelda has spoken out about the growing reliance on AI within the movie industry, recalling how "personally disturbing" she found it when the technology was used to recreate her late father's voice.
Showing solidarity with the actors taking part in the SAG-AFTRA strike, the 34 year old took to her Instagram Story recently to explain why she's "not an impartial voice" when it comes to supporting the action. "I've witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. This isn't theoretical, it is very very real," she continued.
"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," Zelda added. "Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance."
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Protections against AI is one of the key demands in the Screen Actors Guild strike, as well as higher minimum pay rates, increased streaming residuals, and fairer wages for performers who predominantly work in video game production.
"These recreations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people," Zelda went on in her post. "But at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for."
For more, check out our guides to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike and the WGA strike too, which was called off on September after a deal was struck between writers', streamers and Hollywood studios.
