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Robin Williams' Daughter to Fans Creating AI Videos: 'Have Some Shame' (https://variety.com)

96 points by CharlesW 2 days ago | 63 comments | View on ycombinator

fwlr 2 days ago |

Unfortunately, AI content creators have no shame, and neither do social media content curation algorithms; in the current configuration of the world, those two entities form a closed loop that produces and serves this shameful content to unwilling bystanders. From a God’s-eye perspective it is easy to say “we should change this system so this doesn’t happen”, but from within the system each participant can only say “let us follow our incentives to become slightly more rich than other participants” (and any entity that might’ve once held a God’s-eye view along with the power to make such a change has long since abdicated their role).

It is decent microcosm of the state of the world if you’re looking to understand why younger generations seem so fatalistically, nihilistically depressed - they are simply aware that nobody can break these vicious cycles.

ElProlactin 2 days ago |

Are people here not even reading the article?

The video Robin's daughter referenced in her tweet is being circulated as a "private video" of him. In other words, people are claiming it's a real video, or being led to believe it's a real video. It's not and therefore this isn't some misguided AI-generated act of love. It's deception, almost certainly to garner and possibly monetize "attention".

ChrisArchitect 2 days ago |

The struggle is real:

2025:

Robin Williams' daughter pleads for people to stop sending AI videos of her dad

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45505626

2023:

Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda slams AI for recreating her father’s voice

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37742529

KennyBlanken 2 days ago |

Zelda Williams is getting the AI videos forwarded to her by fans.

People who are Robin Williams fans aren't making AI videos of him.

The kind of people who are making videos of him are people trying to get engagement on social media.

Either building an audience to then be an "influencer", or to sell the account to a marketing firm who will then use it to kickstart an online brand.

Marketing company has a client with some stupid new kitchen gadget, so they buy a pumped up account that had Robin Williams memes intermixed with some stolen baking/cooking cartoons and memes.

It's always about money...

apexalpha 2 days ago |

This lady needs some proper advice on this. She is only digging this hole deeper by feeding it attention.

xtiansimon 2 days ago |

After coming back from a friends birthday party, I said to myself, I need to learn a few dance moves.

So I searched on IG, watched and liked a few simply from curiosity. Then the algorithm started sending me more, and more. It was wonderful.

Flip that and you’re Zelda. You look at one or several and you get more (Robin Williams gets clicks, don’t you know).

Eventually the number of recommended dance videos fell off. But by then I had followed a few, so men dancing still show up from time to time.

They say you’re not to read the criticism or comments if you’re a writer. I thought it was just because they’re depressing. But also engaging with someone else’s vitriol is like getting an infection and just recalling the most awful of words will reinfect your psyche.

All this to say it’s not just evil people making sickening content. There’s good things coming through that pipe—Remember to put the phone down and go outside once in a while. And prolly think before you share. Yeah. That too.

the_real_cher 2 days ago |

4chan and Twitter: "Define shame"

Markoff 2 days ago |

I will play devil's advocate:

1. All she does is creating Streisand effect

2. Nobody forces her to be on platforms where she can meet with AI BS of her father, she can interact only with her friends to avoid public BS and not try to be public celebrity (only thanks to beging his daughter, not because she achieved something on herself)

3. She is known ONLY because she is Robin William's daughter, somehow I feel there are monetary reasons behind her complaining, if not, then follow point 2

mulanroo 2 days ago |

She has now asked three times, in 2023 about his voice, in 2025 about the videos, and again today. What changed between them is not the technology, it is what she is asking for. The first time it was stop. Now it is have some shame. That is someone who has worked out there is nobody to appeal to, only an audience, and asking an audience for restraint has never scaled. The enforcement falls on the family, personally, every round, because it does not fall on anyone else.

jrjrjrjrjejeje 2 days ago |

[dead]

moomoo11 2 days ago |

[flagged]

delichon 2 days ago |

I remember being stunned by Mork from Ork. Then watched as the same guy grew into one of the most iconic and loved humans on Earth. Given the amount of brain share that he earned it's kind of inevitable that so many people try to bring him back. I hope his daughter can also feel the love in it.

But shazbot to anyone who goes rule 34 on him.

zergrush 2 days ago |

The irony here is that this article is now a giant invitation to everyone else who just found out about this to pile on and do the exact opposite