Mastodawn

Simon Willison Jan 25, 2024

I'm quoted in this @arstechnica piece about that recent "AI generated" George Carlin special

I don't think it was written by AI

I found the whole thing grossly disrespectful, but I do slightly appreciate the meta-joke here that the AI generated text is fake and was actually written by humans

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/01/did-an-ai-write-that-hour-long-george-carlin-special-im-not-convinced/

Did an AI write that hour-long “George Carlin” special? I’m not convinced.

"Everyone is ready to believe that AI can do things, even if it can't."

Ars Technica

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Simon Willison Jan 25, 2024

“The real story here is… everyone is ready to believe that AI can do things, even if it can't,” Willison told Ars. “In this case, it's pretty clear what's going on if you look at the wider context of the show in question. But anyone without that context, [a viewer] is much more likely to believe that the whole thing was AI-generated… thanks to the massive ramp up in the quality of AI output we have seen in the past 12 months.”

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Simon Willison Jan 27, 2024

Confirmed by the New York Times:

> Danielle Del, a spokeswoman for Sasso, said Dudesy is not actually an A.I.
>
> “It’s a fictional podcast character created by two human beings, Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen,” Del wrote in an email. “The YouTube video ‘I’m Glad I’m Dead’ was completely written by Chad Kultgen.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/26/arts/carlin-lawsuit-ai-podcast-copyright.html

George Carlin’s Estate Sues Podcasters Over A.I. Episode

The lawsuit claims that an hourlong comedy special on YouTube violated Carlin’s copyright.

The New York Times

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Simon Willison Jan 27, 2024

The lawsuit still has legs I think, since it's not just about using copyrighted content to train an AI (which they didn't do) - it also complains about "violation of rights of publicity" - see point 81 in this PDF:

> Defendants have knowingly and intentionally utilized and continue to utilize the name, image and likeness of Carlin without the consent of Plaintiffs

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/George-Carlin-AI-lawsuit.pdf

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Glyph

@simon one of the areas of IP law I have *zero* understanding of is “likeness rights” or “rights of publicity”. Like I know if X takes a photograph of Y then Y has no *copyright* because X is the “author” of the photo. But what rights *do* they have? In what jurisdictions?