Zelda Williams, Robin Williams’ daughter, has pleaded with fans to stop sending her AI-generated films of her father, calling them disrespectful and hurtful.
“Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad. Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories this week. Zelda expressed that these recreations are not what Robin Williams would have wanted, calling the trend “dumb” and “a waste of time and energy”.
AI videos stir painful reactions
Zelda criticised AI-generated videos that digitally resemble Robin Williams. She termed it “disgusting, over-processed hotdogs” that cheapen human legacies for social media clicks.
Zelda said this is an aggravating and unethical “puppeteering” of deceased people. “If you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and me, to everyone, full stop,” she said.
Zelda Williams’ statements also highlight the disturbing side of generative AI in entertainment, which she described as a “horrific Frankensteinian monster” stitching together the worst parts of the industry.
She said it’s disrespectful to reduce someone’s life and legacy to “this vaguely looks and sounds like them, so that’s enough.” Social media platforms like TikTok use digital recreations to create viral content without approval or respect for the subjects.
Her appeal is part of a larger discussion about privacy, permission, and AI ethics, especially in recreating the wants of the unspoken. Many digital likenesses of Robin Williams, who died in 2014, have been modified, sparking disputes over technology’s role in memorialising the dead versus exploiting them.
Zelda Williams’s appeal highlights the emotional impact of these AI videos on families and raises concerns about the morality of such recreations in today’s digital era.