A Digital Fraud

By Gordon Hopkins There has been a lot of hand-wringing by professional hand-wringers, like myself, about the prospect of AI (artificial intelligence) replacing people. I never thought I would have to worry about people replacing AI.Recently, the world was “gifted” (That's sarcasm, in case the quotation marks didn't tip you off) a brand new comedy special by the late comedian, George Carlin. “I'm Glad I'm Dead” was touted as a recreation of the beloved comedian by an AI programmed to mimic Carlin’s voice and style of humor.This has been the big fear of every writer and entertainer who once thought only assembly line workers and other manual laborers got replaced by machines.Unsurprisingly, Carlin's estate has filed a lawsuit. Kelly Carlin, the late comedian's daughter, said, “We have to draw a line in the sand.”She is right, of course. The fight over AI using the likeness of a celebrity, or for that matter any form of copyrighted material, to “resurrect” the dead will be a court battle that will likely go on for years and will determine the future livelihoods of entertainers, writers, musicians and all manner of creators.It also matters to those who consume entertainment, writing, music and all other forms of art. Do they have the right to know if what they are viewing or reading or listening to is an original creation, dreamed up by a flesh and blood artist, or merely a simulacrum generated from bits and pieces of the work of a flesh and blood artist?This particular story, however, throws in a brand new wrinkle I was not anticipating. Soon after news of the lawsuit broke, it was learned that the “comedy” (Once again note the quotation marks) was not produced by an AI after all. According to a spokesperson for one of the people involved with the fraud…uh, I mean comedy special, “The YouTube video ‘I’m Glad I’m Dead’ was completely written by Chad Kultgen.”Humans are suing to keep AIs from pretending to be human. Will AIs start suing to prevent humans from pretending to be AIs?

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