MLK And Malcolm X’s Daughters Slam AI Depictions Of The Dead As OpenAI’s Sora Soars In Popularity
Dr. Bernice A. King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has raised concerns over the use of AI to recreate deceased public figures. Users have been generating AI videos of celebrities through OpenAI’s Sora app.
The app, which launched in September, Sora allows users to create videos from simple text prompts. According to the BBC. the app was downloaded over a million times within five days of its release. However, the app is now facing backlash from the families of deceased celebrities, including Dr. Bernice A. King herself.
Blacklash over Sora
Sora has been used to generate videos featuring celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, and Amy Winehouse. While some of these videos are made for comedic purposes, others are more sinister.
One video showed police body-camera footage of Whitney Houston looking intoxicated, Martin Luther King JR. Making monkey noises during his “I Have a Dream” speech, basketball player Kobe Bryant flies aboard a helicopter, mirroring the crash that killed him and his daughter in 2020, according to The Washington Post.
In an Instagram story, Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late actor Robin Williams, told fans to stop sending her AI videos of her father. “Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t,” Zelda wrote. “If you’re just trying to troll me, I’ve seen way worse, I’ll restrict and move on.”
Dr. Bernice King shared the commentary from a Variety story on Instagram, saying, “I concur concerning my father. Please stop.”
Malcom X’s daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, also asked users to stop creating AI videos of her father. “It is deeply disrespectful and hurtful to see my father’s image used in such a cavalier and insensitive manner when he dedicated his life to truth.” She also questioned why developers weren’t showing the same ethical considerations they’d want for their own families.
OpenAI’s Response
In response to the controversy, an OpenAI spokesperson told NBC News: “While there are strong free speech interests in depicting historical figures, we believe that public figures and their families should ultimately have control over how their likeness is used. For public figures who are recently deceased, authorized representatives or owners of their estate can request that their likeness not be used in Sora cameos.”
Attorney Adam Streisand, who has represented several celebrity estates, told NBC via email that California courts have long protected celebrities from “AI-like reproductions of their images or voices.”
However, Streisand noted that the challenge isn’t legal precedent but enforcement: “The question is whether a non-AI judicial process that depends on human beings will ever be able to play an almost 5th dimensional game of whack-a-mole.”
Image: Getty Images
