AI, Comedy, and Counterculture: An Ethics Case Study

In early 2024, a new comedy special featuring George Carlin was uploaded to YouTube. George Carlin died in 2008; the new program, featuring new content, was AI-generated, and came from a company that had been distributing a podcast and a social media show.

A text comment accompanying the program comes in first person from “Dudesy, a comedy AI”: “For the next hour,” it reads, “I'll be doing my best George Carlin impersonation just like a human being would. I tried to capture his iconic style to tackle the topics I think the comedy legend would be talking about today.”

At the beginning of the program itself, the AI-generated voice of Dudesy offers a disclaimer and an argument:

I just want to let you know very clearly that what you’re about to hear is not George Carlin. It’s my impersonation of George Carlin that I developed in the exact same way a human impressionist would… So think of it like Andy Kaufman impersonating Elvis or like Will Ferrell impersonating George W. Bush.

The developers of the AI-generated Carlin did not get permission from Carlin’s family for their project. Carlin’s daughter reacted to it on X: “These AI generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again… Let’s let the artist’s work speak for itself.”

Toward the end of Carlin’s life, many people on the internet attributed to him things that he had never said—including statements that ran counter to his actual views. In response, he wrote, "Here's a rule of thumb, folks: nothing you see on the #Internet is mine unless it comes from one of my albums, books, HBO specials, or appeared on my website. [...] It bothers me that some people might believe that I would be capable of writing some of this stuff."

The AI-generated “Carlin” commented on many current topics, including the impact and potential of AI itself. The program included dozens of AI-generated images.

Within weeks of the publication of the video, the George Carlin estate sued the show’s creators, who then removed it from their YouTube channel; the lawsuit was settled in April, with a permanent injunction that bans the defendants from re-uploading the video.

Carlin’s daughter subsequently commented that this case “serves as a warning about the dangers posed by AI technologies and the need for appropriate safeguards not just for artists and creatives, but every human on earth.” 

Discussion Questions:

1. Who are the stakeholders impacted by the development and deployment of the AI-generated show? Who should be consulted in the process of developing and deploying such a project? 
2. How might the development of this comedy special be evaluated through the ethical 'lenses' of rights, justice, utilitarianism, the common good, virtue ethics, and care ethics? See “A Framework for Ethical Decision Making” for a concise discussion of those lenses.
3. Do AI-generated text, voices, and images raise distinct ethical issues? If so, might be some of those?
4. Is the AI-generated version of George Carlin “developed in the exact same way a human impressionist would” develop an impression, as the project developers argue? Do you agree that we should think of it as similar to “Andy Kaufman impersonating Elvis or… Will Ferrell impersonating George W. Bush”? Why, or why not?

Case Study originally published in January, 2024; updated June, 2024.