Robin Williams AI videos draw fresh rebuke from daughter Zelda
Zelda Williams condemned a circulating video she said used AI to make her late father discuss conspiracies.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
2 min read
Zelda Williams has issued a fresh warning over Robin Williams AI videos, condemning a circulating clip that she said falsely showed her late father talking about conspiracies.
In a post on X reported by Variety on Sept. 21, Williams said the purportedly private video was “clearly AI.” She said its voice sounded robotic and criticized people who accepted it as genuine.
Williams said whoever made the clip had used a deceased person to make an argument appear more persuasive. She told that person to leave her father out of their “delusional bullshit” and let him rest.
Her assessment of the video as AI-generated has not been independently verified in the reporting.
What did Zelda Williams say about Robin Williams AI videos?
Williams said Robin Williams is not a “puppet” for others to use because he has died, adding: “Have some shame.” The actor and comedian died in 2014 at age 63, according to Variety and the BBC.
In a follow-up to the X post, Williams called the platform a “cesspool” populated largely by bots and people she believes are being fooled by bots. That was her view of the platform, not an independently established measure of activity on X.
The post is the latest in a series of objections from Williams to AI recreations of her father. In October 2025, she asked people through Instagram to stop sending her such videos, saying she did not want to see them and believed they were not what he would have wanted, the BBC reported.
She also criticized the treatment of real people’s legacies as material that only needs to vaguely resemble them to circulate online. In 2023, while supporting SAG-AFTRA’s campaign against AI, she described efforts to recreate her father’s voice as “personally disturbing,” according to the BBC.
Variety reported that Zelda Williams and her brothers, Zak and Cody, revived Robin Williams’ Instagram account the month before the new post. The family said the account would be used to push back against AI misuse of his voice and likeness.
Williams’ latest message focused on one specific clip, but her position has remained consistent: do not send her AI depictions of her father, and do not use him to sell an argument he did not make.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.