In the past, Zelda Williams has had no problem defending her father, the late, great Robin Williams. But after putting Eric Trump in his place back in 2020, the actress and director has a new target: AI.
In a series of Instagram Stories on Monday, Williams urged the internet to “stop sending me AI videos of dad.” She continued, saying she’s “seen way worse” from trolls and described the process as a “waste of time and energy,” adding, “Believe me, it’s not what he’d want.”
She went on to say that these same people are condensing people’s very lives and legacies simply so they can “churn out horrible TikTok slop puppetering.” Those videos, Williams added, can’t be considered art whatsoever but are rather “disgusting, over-processed hotdogs [sic]” made from people’s unrelated imagery/likenesses. In turn, online users are only inundated with this “slop” because some folks are “hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up.”
She went on to say that these same people are reducing entire lives and legacies just to “churn out horrible TikTok slop puppeteering.” Those videos, Williams added, can’t be considered art whatsoever but are rather “disgusting, over-processed hotdogs [sic]” made from people’s unrelated imagery/likenesses. In turn, online users are only flooded with this “slop” because some folks are “hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up.”
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As if that wasn’t enough, Zelda Williams delivered this undeniable truth bomb: AI isn’t “the future,” it’s simply “recycling and regurgitating the past.” And for the grand finale, she threw in a conversation-ending haymaker:
“You are taking in The Human Centipede of content, and from the very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume.”
If we could for a moment, GOTDAMN.
But more seriously, even a tertiary glance at TikTok and similar platforms will reveal dozens and dozens of AI-generated Robin Williams videos/clips. None of them are worth linking to or referencing directly, but all of them are guilty of either infringing on various IP and trademarks as well as being generally obtuse regarding the ideas and opinions of a man they’d never known let alone ever met. It’s painful as fans of Williams to see his image be needlessly manipulated, especially when the work he left beyond already checked so many boxes in terms of emotional content and genre offerings.
Zelda Williams previously struck back at AI during 2023’s SAG-AFTRA strike. In response to people at the time having already used Robin Williams’ voice for various AI-generated media, Zelda said that while she found that “personally disturbing…the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings.” She went on to declare that “living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices.”
Check out screen grabs of her IG stories below.
