Zelda Williams has said she finds artificial intelligence technology that is used to recreate people such as her late father Robin Williams “disturbing”.
The 34-year-old actor has voiced her opinions on the use of AI – which was a central issue of the recent writer’s strikes.
The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) had been striking for months.
At the end of last month, writers agreed to call off strikes after board members approved a contract agreement with Hollywood studio bosses.
The WGA announced it had voted to accept the deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the group which represents studios, streaming services and producers in negotiations, after nearly five months on the picket line.
Speaking about her experiences of AI – and in particular, in relation to her father – Williams said on Instagram: “I am not an impartial voice in SAG’s fight against AI. I’ve witnessed for years how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. This isn’t theoretical, it is very very real.
“I’ve already heard AI used to get his ‘voice’ to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings.
“Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their human effort and time into the pursuit of performance.”
“These recreations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people, but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for.”
In tweets from its eastern and western branches, the WGA said at the end of September: “The WGA reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. Today, our Negotiating Committee, WGAW Board, and WGAE Council all voted unanimously to recommend the agreement. The strike ends at 12.01am.”
Late-night talk shows are likely to be the first shows that will resume.
The writers still have to vote to ratify the contract themselves, but lifting the strike will allow them to work during that process, the Writers Guild told members in an email.
After Tuesday’s board votes, the contracts were released to the writers who had not yet been given any details on the deal, which their leaders called “exceptional”.
The three-year agreement includes significant wins over compensation, length of employment, size of staffs and control of AI.
Williams was found dead at his home in California in August 2014. He was 63.
The actor died by suicide. According to his widow, Williams had experienced depression, anxiety, and increasing paranoia in his final days.
His autopsy confirmed he had suffered from undiagnosed severe Lewy body dementia (LBD).
Speaking after his death, his widow Susan Schneider Williams said the diagnosis “made perfect sense”.
