The podcasters behind “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead”—a controversial stand-up “special” originally advertised as AI-generated—confirm their stunt routine was “completely written” by a human. Although an unsurprising turn of events, it still may not shield them from legal fury.
A brief catchup on the Carlin controversy
To bring anyone blessedly unaware of recent events up to speed: Earlier this month, content creators Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen hyped a forthcoming, Carlin-centric episode of Dudesey, a podcast series they claim is written by a “state of the art entertainment AI” of the same name trained on data including the duo’s own social media posts, text messages, and emails. Then on January 9, Sasso and Kultgen released the episode (currently private on YouTube) after “training” “AI” (they claimed) on text and audio from the entirety of Carlin’s over 50-year career.
“George Carlin died… before 2010, I think—and now he’s been resurrected by an AI to create more material,” Kultgen said in a preview YouTube video. Carlin died in 2008.
At the episode’s outset, Dudesey “AI” claimed: “I 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,” before launching into “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead.” Over the course of the segment, a vocal clone of the late comedian covered a range of Carlinesque topics, including gun violence, politics, free speech, and class.
“If you’re in America, you’re special. God made something just for you, something no other country on the planet gets,” the fake Carlin states early in the episode, as reported over the weekend by The Washington Post. “Of course, I’m talking about mass shootings!” Listeners were not amused.
A tough crowd
Virtually the only positive response to Dudesey’s fake Carlin set…
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