Robin Williams' daughter Zelda decries AI videos of him as “gross” and “not what he’d want”

"If you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me", Williams said, slamming AI videos of late father

Zelda Williams, daughter of the late actor and comedian Robin Williams, has urged fans to stop sharing AI-generated videos that attempt to recreate her father’s likeness and voice.

The filmmaker, who recently directed Lisa Frankenstein, expressed her frustration in a candid Instagram story post.

“Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” Zelda wrote. “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.”

Photo: Instagram

She went on to condemn the broader trend of AI recreations of deceased artists, saying, “To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to ‘this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that’s enough’... is maddening. You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings.”

Zelda continued, “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.”

In 2023, when SAG-AFTRA raised concerns about the use of AI to recreate deceased performers, Zelda described AI imitations of her father as “personally disturbing.”

She added, “Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices… These recreations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people.”