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Robin Williams' daughter begs people to stop making AI videos of her dad
Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late comedian and actor Robin Williams, is speaking out against fans who keep sending her AI-generated videos of her father, and she’s not holding back.
In a candid message shared to her Instagram Story on Monday, the Lisa Frankenstein director pleaded with fans to stop sharing artificial intelligence recreations of her late father.
“Stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” she wrote (via The Hollywood Reporter). “Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand. I don’t and I won’t.”
Williams added that she’s aware some people are sending the clips to provoke her, but insisted that it doesn’t bother her. “If you’re just trying to troll me, I’ve seen way worse,” she continued. “But please, if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me; to everyone, even. It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want.”
“You’re not making art” – Williams condemns AI imitations
Williams went on to criticize what she sees as the growing trend of AI-generated likenesses of deceased celebrities being used for social media content.
“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 wrote.
“You’re not making art,” she continued. “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.”
Her statement struck a chord with fans and fellow artists who share similar concerns about the ethics of AI-generated performances and digital “resurrections.”
The ongoing debate around AI in Hollywood
Robin Williams, an Oscar-winning actor beloved for roles in Good Will Hunting, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Dead Poets Society, died in 2014 at the age of 63. Since his passing, clips using his likeness or voice have circulated online; often created through AI.
Zelda Williams joins a growing list of Hollywood figures raising alarms about the use of AI in entertainment. Last month, SAG-AFTRA members and several actors criticized a new AI talent studio that claimed to represent a computer-generated actress named Tilly Norwood.
Meanwhile, industry leaders continue to debate the ethics of AI likeness replication. Executives have voiced concerns about how new technologies (including OpenAI’s Sora 2 video platform) handle celebrity images and voices without proper consent.
“AI is just regurgitating the past”
In a follow-up Instagram Story, Williams doubled down on her criticism, rejecting claims that artificial intelligence represents progress in creativity.
“For the love of EVERYTHING, stop calling it ‘the future,’” she wrote. “AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content (from the very, very end of the line) all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume.”
Her blunt message highlights a growing tension in the entertainment industry between technology’s potential and the human legacy it risks erasing.