Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late actor and comedian Robin Williams, has publicly condemned AI-generated videos featuring her father. In an Instagram story on Monday, she urged people to stop sending her such content, describing it as 'disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings.'
'Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,' Zelda wrote. '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. But please, if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop.'
This is not the first time Zelda, an actor and film-maker, has spoken out against AI recreations of her father, who died in 2014. In 2023, she supported the Screen Actors Guild’s campaign against AI, stating: 'I’ve witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad.'
The rise of AI deepfakes has seen a proliferation of such content across social media, from scams to entertainment. Recent videos of Robin Williams on TikTok appear to have been created using OpenAI’s Sora 2 video generator, including a fake Apple ad and an awards ceremony interaction with the late Betty White.
OpenAI has stated that content owners can flag copyright infringement via a 'copyright disputes form,' but individual artists or studios cannot have a blanket opt-out. Varun Shetty, OpenAI’s head of media partnerships, said: 'We’ll work with rights holders to block characters from Sora at their request and respond to takedown requests.'
