Zelda Williams Urges Fans to Stop Sharing AI Videos of Her Late Father: “It’s Gross and Not What He’d Want”

Zelda Williams, daughter of the late legendary comedian Robin Williams, has spoken out firmly against the use of artificial intelligence to recreate her father’s image and voice. In a passionate Instagram story posted recently, Zelda called on fans and internet users to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her dad, calling them “gross,” “disrespectful,” and something he never would have wanted.

Robin Williams, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 63, remains an enduring figure in entertainment, celebrated for his iconic roles in films such as Dead Poets Society, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Good Will Hunting. But nearly a decade after his death, AI recreations of his likeness continue to circulate widely across social media — a trend Zelda finds deeply troubling.

“Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad,” Zelda wrote bluntly in her Instagram story. “Stop believing I wanna see it or that I’ll understand, I don’t and I won’t.”

She made it clear that whether these videos are sent out of curiosity, admiration, or even malice, they are neither welcome nor appropriate.

“If you’re just trying to troll me, I’ve seen way worse, I’ll restrict and move on. But please, if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop,” she added. “It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want.”

Zelda expressed her frustration at how the use of AI to replicate deceased public figures reduces their legacy to a shallow mimicry — one that values vague visual or vocal resemblance over the depth and humanity of their original work.

“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 slop puppeteering them is maddening,” she continued. “You’re not making art. You’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings… and then shoving them down someone else’s throat hoping they’ll give you a little thumbs up and like it. Gross.”

The director and writer — known for her work on the recent film Lisa Frankenstein — concluded her remarks with a powerful critique of the current AI craze, especially when it’s framed as a forward-looking advancement in technology.

“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.”

This is not the first time Zelda has criticized the use of AI to recreate her father’s likeness. Back in 2023, during the SAG-AFTRA strike, she addressed the ethical implications of AI in the entertainment industry — particularly the use of dead actors’ voices and images without consent.

“I am not an impartial voice in SAG’s fight against AI,” she wrote 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.”

Zelda noted that she had already seen her father’s “voice” being used by AI models to say things he never said — a practice she finds not only personally upsetting but also emblematic of a broader industry problem.

“Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance,” she explained. “These recreations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people, but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for.”

Her statements highlight a growing concern within Hollywood about the rise of AI technologies and their ethical use — especially when it comes to performers who are no longer alive to give their consent. While technology continues to evolve rapidly, Zelda’s message is a clear reminder: behind every digital recreation is a human legacy that deserves to be treated with dignity.

As AI content becomes increasingly prevalent online, Zelda Williams’ words serve as a powerful call for respect — not just for her father’s memory, but for the creative contributions of all artists, past and present