Kelly Carlin’s criticism of the positively tepid procedurally generated rant cuts to the core of the problem with A.I. hijacking the voices of the dead, beyond the obvious, macabre disrespect inherent in the idea — A.I. can analyze every recorded bit of comedy in Carlin’s catalog and create something with the structure of a Carlin rant, but the aesthetic similarities to his actual work are categorically skin-deep. Though ChatGPT (poorly) approximated Carlin’s cadence, the shadow of a voice expressed in the output is, by definition, soulless.
Carlin was comedy’s most meticulous wordsmith, so seeing sophomoric phrases like “Sometimes, the best way to beat the system is to create a better one” even indirectly attributed to Carlin’s voice is insulting when the sentence — and the entire monologue — would better fit a cynically simple commercial for a credit union. In addition, anyone familiar with Monopoly understands how the Hasbro game is already a commentary on American capitalism, which makes the line, “It’s like a game of Monopoly, but with real houses and hotels,” the only remotely funny punchline in a “laughing at you, not with you” sense.
Kelly Carlin also called the A.I. rant “an abomination,” which is likely more gentle than her father would have been on the subject. In fact, the only laugh Kelly Carlin got out of the entire thing was when one commenter quipped, “I think they spelled ‘Greg Gutfeld’ wrong.”