A new comedy special starts with the quote, “I’m sorry it took me so long to come out with new material, but I do have a pretty good excuse. I was dead.”
The voice sounds like comedian George Carlin, but that would be impossible, as Carlin died in 2008. The voice in the special is actually generated by an artificial intelligence (AI).
“This is not my father. It’s so ghoulish. It’s so creepy,” Carlin’s daughter, Kelly Carlin-McCall, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
The YouTube account Dudesy, which is described as a podcast, artificial intelligence and “first of its kind media experiment,” released the hour-long special on Jan. 9. CBC reached out to the producers of Dudesy and its co-host Will Sasso for comment, but did not get a response.
Sasso and co-host Chad Kultgen say they can’t reveal the company behind the AI due to a non-disclosure agreement, according to Vice. The channel launched in March 2022.
Carlin-McCall said the channel never reached out to the family or asked for permission to use her father’s likeness. She says her father took great pride in the thought and effort he put into writing his material.
I watched about a third of it. It’s actually not too bad. It has some of that Carlin wit to it. I like the transition from God inventing cancer to “America gets a special way to die, though, MASS SHOOTINGS” - that was the big one that made me say “Wow. George would have definitely done a skit about mass shooting like this.”
The reality TV bit, though, I dunno. George was a BIG fan of “the freak show” that was life, so he might have actually been a bit more positive about it. Also, the parts about your vote not mattering, that was pretty spot on. George admitted he doesn’t vote and it was because he felt it didn’t matter, and he also didn’t want to take part in society the way it is