The estate of George Carlin sued a pair of podcasters for using artificial intelligence to create a script and voice imitating the late comedian for a new comedy routine, citing the right of publicity and copyright infringement.
Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen released their Carlin-based “I’m Glad I’m Dead” special on their Dudesy podcast on Jan. 9, the Thursday complaint in the US District Court for the Central District of California said. The defendants allegedly admitted to inputing thousands of hours of copyrighted Carlin material into an AI model to create the script and “fabricate a semblance of Carlin’s voice” to impermissibly imitate the comedian, who died in 2008.
The case, brought by the estate and Jerold Hamza—Carlin’s longtime manager and executor of his estate—will explore the boundary of what AI can permissibly do when it comes to both using copyrighted material and imitating famous performers.
It alleges that the use of Carlin’s work to create the new AI material infringes copyright. It also said that the routine purporting to reflect what Carlin would have thought about current issues—along with the use of Carlin’s name and AI-generated images of Carlin—violated his posthumous right of publicity under California law, which allows commercial control of an individual’s name and likeness for commercial purposes.
According to the compliant, Dudesy previously removed an AI-generated video of Tom Brady performing a stand-up comedy routine after the retired NFL star threatened to sue.
Dudesy and Sasso didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment made to their Facebook pages.
Boies Schiller Flexner LLP represents Carlin’s estate.
The case is Main Sequence Ltd. v. Dudesy LLC, C.D. Cal., No. 24-711, 1/25/24.
To contact the reporter on this story:
To contact the editor responsible for this story: