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The struggle is real:
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
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37742529
4chan and Twitter: "Define shame"
i mean.. i get it.
i'd never do it.
but this is the internet. people are making AI videos of everyone and everything.
no offense, but RW isn't special there are many famous people out there and it just comes with the territory of being famous.
if it is a good AI video and i think it is funny or good, i'll give it a like and move on.
you're free to downvote me if you disagree, because either way, in this case both up and down votes prove me right.
edit: since I can't reply directly for a bit, here's some updates: (^ = my reply)
clipsy: So your worldview boils down to: if something happens a lot, it can't be bad?
^ so you want to force/compel people to your world view? feel free to join Mao, Stalin, and other [famous - lol] people who did the same!
Barbing: Where are you seeing AI edits?
^ the internet exists, you can go on social media like X, IG, Reddit, etc. unless you're holier than others and "better" and thus don't go anywhere on the internet because you're too busy changing the world or whatever from your high horse
dghlsakjg: Upvotes and downvotes do not give any validity to an argument. Sorry it doesn’t make sense to you.
^ its okay. you're one of those people who obsesses over what other people think, and live your life that way.
clipsy: > i mean.. i get it. (point 1) i'd never do it. (point 2) And?
Essentially: it happens a lot so it must be OK. Lovely morals.
People don't care about a random murder victim as much as they care about Rob Reiner; murder is still wrong and deplorable.
Whiny bullshit.
^ lol
yes, AND, if your father was dead and people were desecrating him daily, would this "logic" of yours stop you from feeling that saying something is appropriate?
(No. Come on.)
i see AI edits of living people like sama or dario every day, various politicians, actors from various movies, etc.
i see AI edits of people who aren't here anymore like that guy charlie kirk or george floyd (to pick examples from "both" sides), i saw ai edits of alan rickman (guy who played Snape in happy Potter), and there are edits of napoleon or others.
if my dad was a famous actor known by literally 100s of millions of people, that was my dad's choice to bring that on himself. just being real.
people trying to compel other people is just an L take
So your worldview boils down to: if something happens a lot, it can't be bad?
Where are you seeing AI edits?
incants magical spell so that I'm always right!
Checkmate atheists, or something.
No, they really don't.
it means both are correct stances to have, sorry it doesn't make sense to you
Feel free to ELI5, I'll be waiting with bated breath.
in my post i said:
i mean.. i get it. (point 1) i'd never do it. (point 2)
i also said, it is the internet and people will do that because famous people are... famous... and if there's an AI video of a famous person that I do like, i will give it a like.
if Robin Williams was some guy who worked as a cashier at Trader Joe's his whole life nobody would care
maybe Robin Williams should have never been an actor then he'd be unknown to the masses, like 99% of us on HN
And?
Essentially: it happens a lot so it must be OK. Lovely morals.
People don't care about a random murder victim as much as they care about Rob Reiner; murder is still wrong and deplorable.
Whiny bullshit.
Upvotes and downvotes do not give any validity to an argument.
Sorry it doesn’t make sense to you.
Bob Barker and Wilford Brimley both took it pretty hard on Sora.
I don't remember seeing any RW content, but there was some John Lennon stuff. He was mostly in good taste, but I remember seeing something and being, uncomfortable with it.
I don't really see why Bob Barker should be any less protected, then John Lennon or Robin Williams. None of these people were saints.
But there is or at least used to be deference provided to certain people or establishments.
I haven't seen this video that was so upsetting, but perhaps it's not the reanimation so much as the content. Some of it is so obviously satire it's not to be taken seriously.
But, I remember somebody used Bruce Lee as a vessel to spread the gospel on Sora. I had to frown at that, as it was not how he would have behaved.
I remember being stunned by Mork from Ork. Then watched as the same guy grew into one of the most iconic and loved humans on Earth. Given the amount of brain share that he earned it's kind of inevitable that so many people try to bring him back. I hope his daughter can also feel the love in it.
But shazbot to anyone who goes rule 34 on him.
There's a few different ways to look at this.
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.
Perfectly stated. Thank you.
"Love is the most selfish of all the passions." — Alexandre Dumas
The irony here is that this article is now a giant invitation to everyone else who just found out about this to pile on and do the exact opposite
It's called the Streisand effect - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
It's actually not the Streisand effect. The Streisand effect is about trying to smother a controversy and, in the process, breathing life into it.
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.
She has now asked three times, in 2023 about his voice, in 2025 about the videos, and again today. What changed between them is not the technology, it is what she is asking for. The first time it was stop. Now it is have some shame. That is someone who has worked out there is nobody to appeal to, only an audience, and asking an audience for restraint has never scaled. The enforcement falls on the family, personally, every round, because it does not fall on anyone else.