Zelda Williams asks fans to stop sending AI videos of Robin Williams

Zelda Williams, the 36-year-old filmmaker and daughter of the late comedian Robin Williams, on Monday urged people to stop sending her AI-generated videos that recreate her father, saying the clips are upsetting, disrespectful and not what he would have wanted. In posts to her Instagram Stories dated Oct. 6, Williams said she does not want to see the manipulated videos and asked those sharing them to cease, calling the trend a waste of time and energy.

"Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad," she wrote. "Stop believing I wanna see it or that I'll understand, I don't and I won't." She added that she will block or restrict anyone who is only trying to troll her but appealed to others "if you've got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop." Williams also criticized the quality and purpose of many of the clips, writing that they reduce real people to "overprocessed hotdogs" churned out for social media engagement.

Her comments come as AI tools that generate video and audio likenesses of deceased and living public figures have become more widely used on social platforms. Clips purporting to recreate the voices and appearances of late...