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Robin Williams' daughter Zelda slams AI videos featuring late actor as ‘over-processed hot dogs’

She called on fans to stop sending her such videos, describing the content as a “waste of time and energy”

Robin Williams AI

Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late actor Robin Williams

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Highlights:

  • Zelda Williams urges fans to stop sharing AI-generated videos of her late father.
  • She compares such content to “over-processed hotdogs” and calls it a distortion of human legacy.
  • Her statement coincides with industry pushback against AI-generated actress Tilly Norwood.

Zelda Williams condemns AI re-creations of her father

Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late actor Robin Williams, has publicly criticised AI-generated content featuring her father’s likeness. In a series of Instagram posts, she called on fans to stop sending her such videos, describing the content as a “waste of time and energy” and stressing that it would not have been what her father wanted.

“Please, if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me,” she wrote. “To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to ‘this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that’s enough’, just so other people can churn out horrible TikTok content, is maddening.”


She added a striking metaphor, saying that the videos were “disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of the history of art and music, and then shoving them down someone else’s throat hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up and like it.”

A personal loss and ongoing struggles

Robin Williams, famed for his roles in Mrs Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting and Aladdin, passed away in August 2014 at his home in Marin County, California, aged 63. Following his death, Zelda Williams stepped away from Twitter due to trolling and manipulated images of her father circulating online.

In her latest post, she criticised the broader use of artificial intelligence in media, describing it as “just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be reconsumed.” She also referred to it as the “Human Centipede of content,” highlighting her disdain for the mechanisation of art and memory.

Hollywood pushback against AI actors

Zelda Williams’ condemnation comes as the entertainment industry increasingly reacts to AI-generated performers. The AI-created actress Tilly Norwood, unveiled at the Zurich Film Festival last month, has faced swift criticism.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) stated that Norwood “is not an actor but a computer program trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation.” The union argued that such creations “have no life experience to draw from, no emotion, and audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.”

Actors, including Emily Blunt and Whoopi Goldberg, have voiced support for the union, warning that AI-generated performances threaten jobs and undermine human artistry. Blunt described the situation as leaving the industry “screwed,” emphasising the risks posed to performer livelihoods.

Zelda Williams’ plea serves as a stark reminder of the emotional impact and ethical questions surrounding the use of deceased performers’ likenesses in digital media, highlighting a growing tension between technology and human creativity.