Robin Williams’ daughter pleads for people to stop sending AI videos of her dad

Zelda Williams, the daughter of Robin Williams, has asked people to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her father, the celebrated US actor and comic who died in 2014.

“Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” Zelda Williams posted on her Instagram stories.

“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. It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want.”

This is not the first time Zelda Williams, a film director, has criticised AI versions of her father, who took his own life in 2014 at his Californian home at the age of 63.

Williams, who was famous for films such as Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society and Mrs Doubtfire, was understood to have been battling depression at the time of his death.

In 2023, in an Instagram post supporting a campaign against AI by US media union SAG-Aftra, she described attempts at recreating his voice as “personally disturbing”, while also pointing to the wider implications.

Her post on Tuesday reflects a trend on social media, where images of people who have died are animated, featuring captions like “bring your loved ones back to life”.

Williams continued: “To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to ‘this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that’s enough’, just so other people can churn out horrible TikTok slop puppeteering them is maddening,” she continued.

“You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of the history of art and music, and then shoving them down someone else’s throat hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up and like it. Gross.”

She concluded: “And for the love of EVERY THING, stop calling it ‘the future,’ AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume.”

The Human Centipede is a reference to the 2009 body horror film.

Her latest comments come in the wake of unease following the unveiling of “AI actor”, Tilly Norwood.

Norwood was created by Dutch actor and comedian Eline Van der Velden, who reportedly said she wanted Norwood to become the “next Scarlett Johansson”.

In a statement, SAG-Aftra said Norwood “is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers.

“It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience,” the union added.

Actress Emily Blunt also recently said she found the idea of Norwood terrifying.

“That is really, really scary, Come on, agencies, don’t do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection,” she said on a podcast with Variety.

Van der Velden later said in a statement: “To those who have expressed anger over the creation of my AI character, Tilly Norwood, she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art.

“Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity.”