Zelda Williams does not approve of AI-generated tributes to her father.
The late Robin Williams’ only daughter has asked fans to stop sending her AI-generated videos of the Good Will Hunting star, explicitly condemning the creation and sharing of that content.
“Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” Zelda wrote in a since-expired Oct. 6 Instagram Story. “Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t. If you’re just trying to troll me, I’ve seen way worse, I’ll restrict and move on.”
And as for her father—who died of suicide in 2014 at the age of 63 —she stressed the Mrs. Doubtfire actor would not approve of it.
“But please, if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop,” the Lisa Frankenstein director added. “It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want.”
For Zelda, the use of AI images and videos for content is “maddening” and disruptive to real legacies.
“You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of the history of art and music,” she wrote. “And then shoving them down someone else’s throat hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up and like it. Gross.”
And Zelda’s feelings about AI go beyond her father’s image and likeness.
“And for the love of EVERY THING, stop calling it ‘the future,’” she wrote. “AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume.”
Zelda has previously been outspoken about the use of AI in entertainment. Amid the SAG-AFTRA strike in October 2023, the filmmaker voiced her concerns about Hollywood using AI to recreate the voices of actors who could not approve of it, including her father.
“I am not an impartial voice in SAG's fight against AI,” Zelda wrote on her Instagram Story at the time. “I've witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. This isn't theoretical, it is very very real."
Aside from the use of AI, Zelda has candidly shared how fans constant outpouring of videos and photo tributes to her father—who shared Zelda and Cody Williams with Marsha Garces as well as Zak Williams with Elayne Boosler—have impacted her grief journey.
"As I've said in the past, while I am constantly touched by all of your boundless continued love for him,” she wrote in August 2020. “Some days it can feel a bit like being seen as a roadside memorial—a place, not a person—where people drive past and leave their sentiments to then go about their days comforted their love for him was witnessed."