George Carlin estate forces “AI Carlin” off the Internet for good

Enlarge / The original YouTube thumbnail for Dudesy’s Carlin special shows an AI-generated comedian sporting Carlin’s signature gray ponytail look. (credit: Carlin estate vs. Dudesy lawsuit)

The George Carlin estate has settled its lawsuit with Dudesy, the podcast that purportedly used a “comedy AI” to produce an hour-long stand-up special in the style and voice of the late comedian.

Dudesy’s “George Carlin: Dead and Loving It” special, which was first uploaded in early January, gained hundreds of thousands of views and plenty of media attention for its presentation as a creation of an AI that had “listened to all of George Carlin’s material… to imitate his voice, cadence and attitude as well as the subject matter I think would have interested him today.” But even before the Carlin estate lawsuit was filed, there were numerous signs that the special was not actually written by an AI, as Ars laid out in detail in a feature report.

Shortly after the Carlin estate filed its lawsuit against Dudesy in late January, a representative for Dudesy host Will Sasso told The New York Times that the special had actually been “completely written by [Dudesy co-host] Chad Kultgen.”