An anonymous reader shared a report. George Carlin's estate has filed a federal lawsuit against the comedy podcast Dudessy over an hour-long comedy special that was sold as an AI-generated impression of the late comedian. However, a representative for one of the podcast hosts behind this special admits that it was actually written by a human. In a lawsuit filed in California District Court by Carlin's manager, Jerrold Hamza, Carlin's estate claims that the special “George Carlin: Glad He's Dead” (soon to be set to “private” on YouTube) It is pointed out that it has been distributed. (after a lawsuit was filed) to appear as if it was created by an AI trained on Carlin's decades worth of material. According to the complaint, that training included, by definition, “copying Carlin's original copyrighted routines” without permission for the purpose of “fabricating Carlin's voice and producing Carlin's stand-up comedy routines.” This includes making “illegal copies.”
Despite their presentation as AI creations, as Ars detailed this week, there was plenty of evidence to suggest that Dudesy's podcasts and specials themselves were not actually written by AI. In response to the lawsuit, a representative for Dudesy host Will Sasso confirmed the same to the New York Times. “This is a fictional podcast character created by two people, Will Sasso and Chad Krutgen,” spokesperson Daniel Dell told the paper. “The entire YouTube video 'I'm Glad I'm Dead' was written by Chad Krutgen.” Regardless of that admission, Josh Schiller, Carlin's real estate attorney, told the Times that the case will move forward. Ta. “I don't know what they're saying and whether it's true or not,” he said. “What we do know is that they will be fired. They will provide documentation and we will find some evidence of how the show was produced.”
