It is decent microcosm of the state of the world if you’re looking to understand why younger generations seem so fatalistically, nihilistically depressed - they are simply aware that nobody can break these vicious cycles.
FTFY.
Otherwise, you're right. A system where the selection pressure happens through money and attention is bound to devolve to appeal to the strongest most primitive of desires.
The video Robin's daughter referenced in her tweet is being circulated as a "private video" of him. In other words, people are claiming it's a real video, or being led to believe it's a real video. It's not and therefore this isn't some misguided AI-generated act of love. It's deception, almost certainly to garner and possibly monetize "attention".
So I searched on IG, watched and liked a few simply from curiosity. Then the algorithm started sending me more, and more. It was wonderful.
Flip that and you’re Zelda. You look at one or several and you get more (Robin Williams gets clicks, don’t you know).
Eventually the number of recommended dance videos fell off. But by then I had followed a few, so men dancing still show up from time to time.
They say you’re not to read the criticism or comments if you’re a writer. I thought it was just because they’re depressing. But also engaging with someone else’s vitriol is like getting an infection and just recalling the most awful of words will reinfect your psyche.
All this to say it’s not just evil people making sickening content. There’s good things coming through that pipe—Remember to put the phone down and go outside once in a while. And prolly think before you share. Yeah. That too.
If you are publicly famous, your image no longer is owned by you, especially true with AI now.
2025:
Robin Williams' daughter pleads for people to stop sending AI videos of her dad
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45505626
2023:
Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda slams AI for recreating her father’s voice
1. All she does is creating Streisand effect
2. Nobody forces her to be on platforms where she can meet with AI BS of her father, she can interact only with her friends to avoid public BS and not try to be public celebrity (only thanks to beging his daughter, not because she achieved something on herself)
3. She is known ONLY because she is Robin William's daughter, somehow I feel there are monetary reasons behind her complaining, if not, then follow point 2
People who are Robin Williams fans aren't making AI videos of him.
The kind of people who are making videos of him are people trying to get engagement on social media.
Either building an audience to then be an "influencer", or to sell the account to a marketing firm who will then use it to kickstart an online brand.
Marketing company has a client with some stupid new kitchen gadget, so they buy a pumped up account that had Robin Williams memes intermixed with some stolen baking/cooking cartoons and memes.
It's always about money...
Zelda is not exercising power or suppressing a controversy. This is just old fashioned dickheadedness. A generous interpretation would be juvenile trolling since they know their mark is vulnerable.
But shazbot to anyone who goes rule 34 on him.
1. You appreciate Robin Williams and were he here right now judging you for how you honor his memory, would he approve?
2. Robin Williams is not here, or anywhere, so then if he were would he approve of you bringing pain to someone he loved dearly? Why would you do that to Robin Williams?
3. Robin Williams is not here, or anywhere, so then nothing matters and I bet I could get some views.
It's difficult to see love in these acts when they seem to be fundamentally selfish. Not at all what Robin Williams would do.
What about when poking fun at Hitler, such as Kung Fury and Jojo Rabbit do? Off limits?
Can one paint Bob Ross in a sci-fi setting? Is that unethical? Is it okay so long as a "real" artist does it and not an "AI artist"? Or can we seriously never depict him again because someone might get angry?
"Mr. Rogers in a blood-stained sweater"?
Come on!
And we can't animate Bruce Lee? Or put him on stickers? Or have him in new movies? (Nevermind how Quentin Tarantino did him wrong.)
When I grew up Elvis effigies were everywhere. And I mean everywhere. The people who liked this stuff are mostly dead or retired now so you don't see it as much, but it used to be a big deal. Really big deal.
So we can't do that anymore?
Abraham Lincoln hunts vampires for Christ's sake...
Would people still make AI videos of him like this if the attention economy didn’t exist or clicks wouldn’t generate money?
I hate to break it to you, but I think the genie from Aladdin counts.
With a reasonably more generous definition, this case can indeed be considered a Streisand effect, if the problem gets worse by calling attention to it because now more idiots know about it. But a lawsuit would seal the deal!
"glove slap I demand satisfaction. Pistols at dawn. This is how we settle problems and there's no going back now." God made man and Colt made them equal, yes?
The current usage of AI is similarly unrefined and out of hand.
Also, this a good list of false equivalences. Robin Williams, when public, was empathetic, emotional, and arguably humanist. His memory isn't a caricature from people who have never known him, as you would see from Star Trek holo-deck episodes featuring Leonardo Da Vanci. His memory is something that is deeply important to people who are living. Some of those people simply appreciated his art and his behavior. One of those people is his daughter. You don't get to say what is right or wrong here. No one's going to stop you if you want to make a video of Robin Williams taking the Siegfried Oath, but you should understand why it is wrong.
It sucks for Zelda this saddens her so much, but if I were in her shoes it’s something I know I can’t control and so I’d try to embrace or ignore it.
This has nothing to do with impersonating a deceases person but about rewriting (personal) history she finds shameful.
Emphatically yes.
Just as freely as you use the words and language of dead people.
One day you won't even think about it. Well, your descendants won't. The aversion dies with you.
Squeamishness over thinking and speaking is pretty rare. Visual creation is just a new dimension of our conversation, and it'll be as accessible and common as writing words down.
You know the old generation called the world wide web satanic? They died and we stopped worrying about it.
I mean I quite like jokes, metaphor, and libel, but one should probably have some restraint, details TBD.
Maybe you're worrying about social pressure? I can see how general agreement that it's wrong to do XYZ can lead to forcibly preventing anybody at all from doing XYZ.