The estate of George Carlin has settled a legal dispute with two podcasters over their unauthorized, artificial-intelligence generated comedy routine imitating the legendary comedian, according to filings in California federal court.
Carlin’s estate and the makers of the podcast Dudesy told U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong on Tuesday that the podcasters had agreed to permanently remove “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead” from the internet and stop using Carlin’s image, voice or likeness without its permission. No other terms of the settlement were disclosed.
The lawsuit was among the first in the entertainment world related to “deepfakes” – convincing digital imitations of real people made possible by fast-evolving AI technology.
Representatives for the podcast could not immediately be reached for comment on the settlement.
Carlin’s daughter Kelly Carlin said in a statement that she was pleased that the case was resolved “quickly and amicably.” The estate’s attorney Josh Schiller of Boies Schiller Flexner said the settlement will provide “a blueprint for resolving similar disputes going forward where an artist or public figure has their rights infringed by AI technology.”
The premise of actor Will Sasso and comedian Chad Kultgen’s podcast is that it is fully written and controlled by an AI system named Dudesy.
The podcasters posted Dudesy’s audio routine mimicking Carlin to YouTube on Jan. 9, which received more than 500,000 views. A computerized voice attributed to Dudesy says at the beginning of the video that it “listened to all of George Carlin’s material and did my best to imitate his voice, cadence, and attitude, as well as the subject matter I think would have interested him today,” including American politics, reality television and AI itself.
